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ANCIENT HISTORY 

FROM THE MONUMENTS. 

PERSIA. 



ANCIENT HISTORY 

FROM THE MONUMENTS. 



I EGYPT From the earli est times to B. C. 300. 

By S. Birch, LL.D. 

ASSYRIA From the earliest times to the fall of Nineveh. 
By George Smith, of the British Museum. 

PERSIA From the earnest period to the Arab Conquest. 
By W. S. W. Vaux, M. A. F. R. S. 



In this series we have a compact but popular presentation of 
the highly important results of recent archaeological investigation. 
The annals of Egypt, Assyria and Persia, as derived from the 
monuments and from the cuneiform inscriptions. generally, are of 
the greatest importance to understanding the development of 
human civilization and the tendency of religious thought. Besides 
this there has been brought out a mass of evidence and illustration 
on manners and customs, language and literature, tending to 
throw light on the earlier books of the Bible, a knowledge of 
which is indispensable to every well-informed man. This has 
heretofore been practically inaccessible because of the recondite 
manner in which it has been discussed. Each of these volumes 
has been prepared by specialists who are masters of their respective 
departments. 



Each volume handsomely illustrated. Small i2mo. Cloth. 
Price, $1.00. 

#% Sent Post-paid, upon Receipt of Price, by 

SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO., 

New York. 




ROCK OF BEHISTAN. 



ANCIENT HISTORY 



FROM THE MONUMENTS. 



PERSIA 



FROM THE 



EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE ARAB CONQUEST. 



„ . J> y- BY 

W: S. Wl VAUX, M. A., F. R. S. 



NEW YORK: 

SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. 
1876. 



.V-a 



Grant, Faires & Rodgers, 

Electrotypers and Printers, 

52 & 54 N. Sixth St., 

PHILADELPHIA. 



jty Transfer 

AUG 12 19? 7 



CONTENTS. 



LIST OF DYNASTIES Page vi. 

INTRODUCTION Page vii. 

CHAPTER I. 

Cyrus — Croesus — War in North-east Asia — Fall of Babylon — • 
Tomb of Cyrus — Cambyses — Pseudo-Bardes — Darius— Cam- 
paign in Scythia — Home at Susa — Inscription and Coin of 
Pythagoras — Burning of Sardis — Second Invasion of Europe — 
Marathon Page 16 

CHAPTER II. 

Xerxes — Canal of Athos — Thermopylae — Salamis — Artaxerxes I. 
— Darius II. — Artaxerxes II. — Cyrus the Younger — Ochus — 
Darius III. — Alexander — Graneikus — Issus — Visit to Jerusa- 
lem — Arbela , Page 46 

CHAPTER III. 

Daniel — Darius the Mede Page 73 

CHAPTER IV. 

Tomb of Cyrus — Inscriptions of Darius — Behist&n — V&n, &c. — 
Inscriptions of Xerxes — Artaxerxes, &c. — Persepolis — Istakhr — 
Susa — Tomb of Darius Page 87 

CHAPTER V. 

Arsacidae — Arsakes I — Tiridates I — Artabanus I — Mithradates I — 
Phraates II — Scythian Invasion- -Mithradates II — Progress of 
the Romans — Orodes — Crassus — Pompey — Antony — Tiridates, 
son of Vologases— Trajanus — Avidius Cassius — Severus — Arta- 
banus — Battle of Nisibis Page 123 

CHAPTER VI. 

Sassanidse — Ardashir I. — Shahpiir I. — Valerian — Odsenathus — 
Varahran II. — Tiridates of Armenia — Galerius — Narses — Shah- 
piir II. — Zu'laktaf — Julian III. — Firuz I. — Nushirwan — Mauri- 
cius — Khosrii II. — Heraclius — Muhammed — Yezdigird III. — 
Muhammedan Conquest — Sassanian Monuments at Nakhsh- 
i-Rustam, Nakhsh-i-Regib, Shahpiir, Takht-i-Bostan — Mr. 
Thomas's interpretation of the inscriptions at Hajiabad. 

Page 154 

5 



LIST OF DYNASTIES. 



[Occasionally, these dates are only approximate : it has not been thought 
necessary to insert the names of rulers who ruled for less than a year.] 



I. EARLY PERSIAN (ACH/EMENIDiE). 



B.C. 

Cambyses I 

Cyrus 558 

Cambyses II 529 

Pseudo-Smerdis (Bar- 

des) 522, 

Darius 1 521 



B.C. 

Xerxes 486 

Artaxerxes I (Longi- 

manus) 465 

Darius II (Nothus) 425-24 
Artaxerxes II (Mne- 
mon) 405 



Artaxerxes III 

(Ochus) 359 

Arses 338-37 

Darius III (Codo- 

mannus) 336 

(Battle of Arbela).... 331 



2 ARSACID^. 

[Each of these princes bore also the dynastic title of Arsakes ; hence 
Mithiadates I is the same as Arsakes VI.] 



B.C. 

Arsakes about 250 

Tiridates 1 247 

Artabanus I._ 214 

Priapatius 196 

Phraates 1 181 

Mithradates 1 174 

Phraates II 136 

Artabanus II 128-7 

Mithradates II 124 

(Mnaskyres) f 

Sanatroces 76 

Phraates III 66 



B.C. 

Mithradates III 60 

Orodes 1 56-55 

Phraates IV 37 

Phraataces 1 dates doubt- 
Orodes II J ful. 

Vonones I.. .date doubtful 
A.D. 

Artabanus III 16 

Gotarzes ~| dates doubt . 
Vardanes > f u | 
Vonones II j 
Vologases I 51 



A.D. 

Pacorus II 78? 

Mithradates IV 107 

Chosroes 113 

Vologases II 130 

Vologases III 149 

Vologases IV 191 

Vologases V f 

Artabanus IV 415? 

(Battle of Hormazd 
and death of Arta- 
banus IV) 226 



A.D. 
Ardashirl (Babekan) 226 

Shahpur 1 240 

Hormazd 1 273 

Varahran 1 274 

Varahran II 277 

Varahran 111 294 

Narses 294 

Hormazd II 303 

Shahpur II (Zu'luk- 
tuf) 310 



SASSANID.ffi. 

A.D. 

Ardashir II 381 

Shahpur III 385 

Varahran IV (Ker- 

man-Shah) 390 

Yezdigird 1 404 

Varahran V (Gaur).. 420 

Yezdigird II 448 

Hormazd III 458 

Firiiz 458 

Palash 484 



A.D. 

Kobad 488 

Jamasp 498 

Khosru I (Nushir- 

wan) 531 

Hormazd IV 579 

Khosru II (Parviz)... 591 
Kobad II (Sheruyieh) 628 

Yezdigird III 632 

(Overthrown by the 

Musulmans) 641 



HISTORY OF PERSIA, 



FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE OVERTHROW OF ITS 
NATIVE DYNASTIES BY THE MUHAMMEDANS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The history of Persia; as generally understood, 
may be considered as a supplement to that of Assyria 
and Babylonia, the events that have made her most 
famous in antiquity having been achieved after the 
empire of the first had passed away, and the second 
had been subjugated by the Persians. 

The small province of Persis (in the Bible Paras, 
in the native inscriptions Parsd), whence the name 
of Persia is derived, was bounded on the north by 
Media, on the south by the Persian Gulf and Indian 
Ocean, on the east by Caramania (Kerman), and on 
the west by Susiana. It was, indeed, nearly the 
same district as the modern Farsistan, the name of 
which is obviously derived from it ; and in length 
and breadth not more than 450 and 250 miles re- 
spectively. 

With regard to the population which occupied this 
district at the earliest historical period, it is certain 

7 



8 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

from the Cuneiform inscriptions, that they were not 
the original dwellers in the district, but themselves 
immigrants, though it is not so certain whence. It 
would lead us too far a-field to discuss here the wide 
question of the settlement of the nations after the 
Biblical Flood, confirmed so remarkably as this is by 
Mr. George Smith's recent discoveries. Moreover, 
it is not possible to fill up, except conjecturally, 
many wide spaces, both of time and territory. Ad- 
mitting, however, the existence of a Deluge, such 
as that recorded in Holy Writ, a long period must 
have elapsed before the different families of mankind 
had arranged themselves in the groups and in the dis- 
tricts we find them occupying at the dawn of history. 

There are reasonable grounds for thinking the 
highlands of Central Asia the historical cradle of 
the Japhetic race ; whether, with some writers, we 
conceive this mountainous region to be the Alpine 
plateau of Little Bokhara, or, with others, the great 
chain south and south-west of the Caspian Sea : the 
first theory suits best for a descent into India; the 
second for a migration into Europe.* 

The former view, taken broadly, is confirmed by 
the early Persian traditions preserved in the two first 
chapters of the Vendidad, (though this compilation 
as we now have it, is very modern), an outline, in 

* I venture to think it unwise to attempt, with Clinton and other 
learned chronologists, to space out the time occupied for each set- 
tlement or movement of the nations after the Flood, or to attempt 
to ascertain the number of the population of pre-historic Asia. 
For such speculations, we have, assuredly, no reliable data. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 9 

the judgment of Heeren, so evidently historical, as 
to require nothing but sufficient geographical know- 
ledge for the identification of the places therein 
mentioned. Whether any of these traditional le- 
gends are really due to Zoroaster (Zaratrusthra), 
[indeed whether a Zoroaster ever lived], is of little 
importance : but this much, however, is certain that 
they enshrine fragments of the most ancient belief 
of the Persians. Thus, they describe as the original 
seat of the Persian race, a delicious country named 
Eriene-Veedjo, the first creation of Ormuzd, the 
Spirit of Good, with a climate of seven months of 
summer and five of winter. But Ahriman, the 
Spirit of Evil, smote this land with the plague of 
ever-increasing cold, till at last it had only two 
months of summer to ten of winter. Hence, the 
people quitted their ancient homes, Ahriman having, 
for fifteen successive times, thwarted the good works 
of Ormuzd, and having, by one device or another, 
rendered each new abode uninhabitable. The names 
of these abodes are given and some of them may be 
even now identified ; and there can be little doubt, 
that they indicate a migration from the north-east 
towards the south and south-west, that is, from the 
Hindu-Kush westward to Media and Persia. The 
original situation of Eriene, a name of the same 
origin as the modern Iran (and possibly of Erin or 
Ireland), would, on this supposition, be to the north 
of the western chains of the Himalaya, a country 
enjoying a short summer, and great extremes of heat 
and cold. 



IO HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Such, briefly, is the legendary "story of Persia, 
which it is best to leave as it is. As, however, I 
shall have again to refer to what has been called the 
creed of Zoroaster, that is, the theory of the sepa- 
rate existence of principles of good and evil, I must 
give the substance of what is most usually acknow- 
ledged about him and the religious system named 
after him. Those who care for fuller details can 
consult the Zend-avesta * as first published by An- 
quetil Du Perron, and the various commentaries or 
modifications of it, suggested by the studies of M. 
M. Westergaard, Spiegel, Haug, Burnouf, Oppert, 
and others. 

I do not myself doubt that Zoroaster, whether or 
not a king (as some have held), was truly a teacher 
and reformer, and, further, that his religious views 
represent the reaction of the mind against the mere 
worship of nature, tending as this does, directly, to 
polytheism and to the doctrine of "Emanations." 
It is, I think, equally evident that such views embody 
the highest struggle of the human intellect (unaided 
by Revelation) towards spiritualism, and that they 
are, so far, an attempt to create a religious system 
by the simple energies of human reason. Hence 
their general direction is towards a pure monothe- 

* Zend-Avesta, more correctly Avesta-u-Zend, i. e. text and 
commentary, The fragments we now have are not older, if so old, 
as A. D. 226, when Ardashir I., founded the Sassanian Empire in 
Persia. Of the twenty-one books said to have been then collected, 
one only, the Vendidad (Vidse-vadata), " the law against demons," 
has been preserved nearly entire. (Dr. Haug, Essays, &c, Bom- 
bay, 1862.) 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. II 

ism; and, had no evil existed in the world, the 
theory embodying them would have remained unas- 
sailed and logically successful. On this rock, how- 
ever, all the spiritual theories of early times neces- 
sarily split. Zoroaster or his disciples halted where 
all must halt who have not the light from on high, 
the one sure support of Jew and Christian alike. 
They could not believe that God, the good, the just, 
the pure, and the perfect, would have placed evil in 
a world he must have created good, like himself: 
hence, as evil is none the less ever present, they 
were forced to imagine a second creator, Ahriman, 
the author of evil, and to give him, during the pre- 
sent existence, equal power with that wielded by the 
Spirit of Good. They held, however (and this is a 
most important part of Zoroastrianism), that a day 
would come when the powers of evil would be finally 
annihilated, and the truth be reinstated, never again 
to fail. I ought to add that the modern Parsees, 
whether of Jezd in Persia or of Bombay, do not 
represent the purity of the original Zoroastrian faith, 
their views being essentially pantheistic, in that they 
substitute emanation for creation and confound the 
distinction of good and evil, by making both spring 
from one creative principle. 

Of the two other great races who take their names 
respectively from Ham and Shem, it is enough to 
state here that modern philology attributes to Ham 
the Cushite tribes of Arabia and Ethiopia, the 
Egyptians, Philistines, Canaanites*, and the Berber 

* I venture myself to doubt whether the Philistines and Canaan- 



12 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

races of North Africa, with, probably, some of the 
primeval inhabitants of Southern India (the Nisha- 
das) and the most remote peoples of Northern Eu- 
rope as the Finns. 

In like manner, the Shemitic population seems 
from the earliest period to which they can be traced 
back, to have occupied nearly the same abodes as in 
later times, viz : — the range of country from Armenia 
(Arphaxad) over Assyria and Babylonia, to the 
southern end of Arabia. That there may have been 
in the southern part of the same country a still earlier 
race, the Accadians, I do not doubt. 

Certain broad characteristics have been accepted 
as distinguishing in a remarkable manner each of 
these races. Thus the so-called Hamites appear, 
universally, as the pioneers of material civilization, 
with a great power over some elements of knowledge, 
but with an equally entire absence of all elevating 
ideas. Their former presence is recognised in the 
foundations of states by brute force, and by the execu- 
tion of gigantic works in stone, like Stonehenge, 
Carnac, &c, if, indeed, these monuments are, as 
has been usually maintained, attributable to so re- 
mote a period. Along, however, with this material 
grandeur, we find the grossest forms of nature- 
worship ; while so remarkably have the Hamite 

ites were the same race ; certainly from what we know of them 
they differ greatly in character. I incline to think the Philistines 
the same as, or connected with, the Phoenicians and, if so, She- 
mites : on the other hand, the Canaanites may be Hamites ; but 
anyhow, of a different origin. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 13 

population fallen into the background or disap- 
peared, in comparison with the other races, that we 
are forcibly reminded of the prophetic words, 
" Cursed be Canaan (or Ham), a servant of servants 
shall he be unto his brethren ;" and again, "Blessed 
be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his 
servant."* 

In striking contrast to the Hamites, the Japhetic 
peoples appear everywhere as the promoters of moral 
as well as of intellectual civilization. As a rule, 
practisers of agriculture rather than hunters, with 
fixed abodes in preference to tents, their several 
dialects (now easily traceable by comparative philo- 
logy) amply confirm the early existence among them 
of institutions fitted to raise human beings above the 
"beasts that perish." 

Hence we find them, in the most remote ages, 
planting corn and feeding on meat instead of on 
acorns and berries, contracting marriages by fixed 
and settled forms, resisting polygamy, and protecting 
their wives with the veneration Tacitus so much 
admired in the German tribes of his day. To them, 
also, is due the institution of the Family and of a 
Religion, at first, as shown by the Vedic hymns, a 
pure Theism — the worship of one God, — though 
with an early and natural tendency to "emanations" 
and their ultimate result, Polytheism. One of the 
hymns of the Rig-veda (according to Professor Max 
Muller) explains with singular clearness the progress 
of this change, in the words, "The wise men give 

* Gen. ix. 25, 26. 



14 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

many names to the Being who is One. ' ' Sacrifices 
to please or propitiate the powers thus separately- 
deified, were the natural but later developments of 
the Polytheistic idea. 

The characteristics of the third or great Shemite* 
race, stand out in equally bold relief against the 
dark background of material Hamitism, though, like 
the other early races, they too, at times, exhibited 
abundant and luxuriant forms of idolatry. In these, 
generally, we find a moral and spiritual eminence 
superior to the best which the Japhetic races have 
worked out, while to one of them, the Jews, we owe 
the guardianship of that Book, in which alone we 
find religious subjects dealt with in a language of 
adequate sublimity; the one volume, indeed, to 
which we can refer with unhesitating faith as con- 
taining, though with tantalizing brevity, all that is 
certain of the origin of the human race. It is satis- 
factory to know that, though, naturally, the tenth 
chapter of the book of Genesis, — the Toldoth-beni- 
Noah, or roll-call of the sons of Noah, in other 
words, of the nations, — has been discussed in in- 
numerable volumes, has been in fact the battle- 
ground of believers as well as of infidels, the main 
outline there traced is confirmed in all essential par- 
ticulars by recent Assyrian discoveries. It is quite 
worth the while of any scholar to look back at the 
interpretation given to it by the learned Bochart, 

* It has been long the fashion to talk of the Semitic nations, 
languages, &c., but Shemite, Shemitic, is the correct form. Shem 
means " name," much like the Greek cn)n a - 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I 5 

two centuries and a half ago ; he will, I think, be 
surprised to see how much of what that great French- 
man proposed so long ago, is still admitted by the 
more complete investigations of the comparatively 
new science of philology. 



CHAPTER I. 

Cyrus — Crcesus — War in North-east Asia — Fall of Babylon — 
Tomb of Cyrus — Cambyses — Pseudo-Bardes — Darius — Cam- 
paign in Scythia — Home at Susa— Inscription and Coin of 
Pythagoras — Burning of Sardis — Second Invasion of Europe — 
Mardonius and Datis — Marathon. 

Having said so much by way of introduction, I 
now proceed to give some account of what we know 
of Persia historically (from the sixth century b. c. 
to the seventh century A. D.), and of the monuments 
still therein attesting its former grandeur. Now, 
first, it may be noted that there is no mention of 
Persia in the tenth chapter of Genesis, or in the Zend- 
avesta, nor does this name occur on any Assyrian 
monument before the ninth century b. c. On the 
other hand, the list in this chapter places the Madai 
or Medes among the sons of Japhet, which, as 
Aryans, is their right position. The natural infer- 
ence is, that those Aryan tribes who were subse- 
quently called Persians, had not yet descended so far 
to the south, but were still clinging to the steeps of 
the Taurus. A little later, the inscriptions of Shal- 
maneser show that they had reached Armenia, but, 
as only petty chiefs are recorded, it is probable that 
their government had not yet crystallized into a 
settled monarchy. Later however, under Sennache- 
16 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 17 

rib, the Perso-Aryans had reached the Zagros, and, 
thence, their further descent by the defiles of the 
Bakhtyari mountains into Persis was comparatively 
easy and rapid, though their migrations perhaps did 
not cease till near the close of the great empire of 
Assyria. The Aryan Medes had, on the other hand, 
held for many years a prominent place among the 
Western Asiatic populations, and it is likely that the 
Persian tribes acknowledged the superiority of the 
Median monarch, much as at the present day the 
Khedive of Egypt acknowledges the supreme rule of 
the Sultan of Turkey, in other words, that the ruler 
of Persis was the chief feudatory of the Median em- 
pire. It must not however be forgotten, that Darius 
the son of Hystaspes claims for his own house, the 
possession of a kingdom with eight immediate pre- 
decessors, he himself being the ninth, a claim he 
could hardly have put forth publicly had there been 
at the time any doubt about it. The Median empire 
appears to have been established about B. c. 647, just 
when the adjoining nations were marshalling their 
forces to put an end to Nineveh, which had so long 
ruled them with a rod of iron ; while, from this 
statement of Darius, it is further probable that there 
were tributary kings in Persis up to about the same 
period. 

Darius himself asserts that the first king of Persia 
was called Achsemenes, a statement confirmed by 
the well-known fact that the Achaemenidas were ac- 
knowledged as the leading family among the Persians. 
Indeed, as Professor Rawlinson has well remarked, in 

B 



l8 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

the East, an ethnic name is very often derived from 
that of one person, as in the case of Midianite, 
Moabite, from Midian and Moab. But though there 
can be little doubt that Persian history may be 
deemed historical from the time of Cambyses, the 
father of Cyrus, there is nothing really worth record- 
ing till we come to Cyrus himself, under whom Per- 
sia takes the place in Western Asia, erst held by the 
Shemitic empires of Assyria and Babylon. 

How Cyrus attained to this pre-eminence has been 
much discussed ; but we do not really want more 
than the notice in the Bible, which is remarkably 
clear and graphic : " Then I lifted up mine eyes, and 
saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram 
which had two horns : and the two horns were high ; 
but one was higher than the other, and the higher 
came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and 
northward, and southward ; so that no beasts might 
stand before him, neither was there any that could 
deliver out of his hand ; but he did according to his 
will, and became great." * And again, ''The ram 
which thou sawest having two horns are the kings 
of Media and Persia, "f 

It has been argued by Heeren (indeed this was the 
common view put forward by writers fifty years ago), 
that the rise of Cyrus was similar to that of many 
other personages in Eastern history, in fact, nothing 
but the successful uprising of a rude mountain tribe 
of nomad habits. But the history of Cyrus implies 

* Dan. viii. 3, 4. f lb. 20. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 19 

something more than this, for the revolution in 
which he was the chief actor, was obviously in some 
degree a religious revolt. Cyrus was, we know, a 
zealous adherent to the Zoroastrian faith in the unity 
of God ; and had been brought up at a court, where 
Magism, or the worship of the elements, prevailed. 
Cyrus must have felt this yoke a galling one, alike 
for himself and for his countrymen, while he was 
doubtless stimulated to greater efforts by the weak- 
ness of the Median ruler, Astyages. It is also likely 
that he fled the court of the Median king from a 
natural disgust at the falsity and frivolity he saw 
around him ; the war which ensued between him and 
Astyages being, perhaps, at first, scarcely anticipated, 
the more so, that the Persians of pure blood must 
have been but a small minority of the whole Medo- 
Persian population. The conflict was indeed at first 
doubtful, but in the end, Astyages having been 
thoroughly beaten, Pasargadas became the capital, 
and Zoroastrianism the established religion of the 
now combined Perso-Median empire. 

The action of Cyrus was simply in accordance 
with the universal habits of a race iconoclastic in 
principle and in deed. Wherever the Persians carried 
their victorious arms, they burnt and destroyed the 
temples of their nature-worshipping enemies. The 
ruins of the temples in Egypt, at Sardis and at Athens, 
and of the statues on the Sacred Way of Branchidse, 
attest the measure of their religious hatreds, rather 
than their ruthlessness as barbarians. Hence a 
natural bond of union between the Persians and the 



20 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Jews, as they were at that time the only nations sup- 
porting pure Theism. In aiding the restoration of 
the Jews, Cyrus knew he was upholding a faith with 
much resemblance to his own, and the same motives 
influenced Darius, in completing the rebuilding of 
the temple after it had been temporarily interrupted 
by the rebellion of the Magian Pseudo-Smerdis.* 
Nor were the Jews forgetful of the support they had 
received from the Persian monarchs, as they adhered 
firmly to them. 

On the effect produced by the substitution of Cyrus 
for Astyages, of a Persian for a Median, history has 
left no definite trace, perhaps, because such a change 
must have had but little effect on the bulk of the 
conquered people. Indeed the establishment of the 
Zoroastrian system would scarcely have been an of- 
fence to any but the Magian priesthood who, 
thereby, lost their occupation. Iconoclastic abroad, 
the Persians were, on the whole tolerant at home ; 
moreover the higher classes of the Medians proba- 
bly cared little what form of worship was professed 
at court. That the union of the two empires was 
soon complete is clear, from the number of native- 
born Medians whom Cyrus selected for his generals 
and chief officials. 

Having united the " Medes and Persians," Cyrus 
at once contemplated making his empire the fore- 
most in Asia ; and for the first steps he took he had 

* Ezra i. 5; Haggai i. 14; Ezra vi. 8, 9. Josephus, however, 
states that the building of the city and temple had also been 
stopped during the reign of Cambyses. — Ant. Jud. xi. 2. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 21 

pretext enough to satisfy the conscience of any 
Asiatic chieftain. Without going into details on a 
portion of history well known to all readers of Hero- 
dotus and Xenophon, it is enough to state here that, 
owing to the invasion and ultimate repression of a 
horde of Cimmerian nomads from the North, a war 
of considerable dimensions had taken place a few 
years before between Asia Minor and Media, in 
which the final struggle is said to have been stopped 
by the eclipse predicted by Thales. The conquests 
of Cyrus naturally tended to fan the flame, and so 
much alarmed the then chief ruler in Asia Minor, 
Crcesus of Lydia, that he was induced to seek the 
alliance of Greece, Egypt, and Babylon, though, 
whether with the view of attacking Cyrus or of re- 
pelling an invasion by him, is not certain. On the 
other hand, Cyrus acted at once, and, with the deci- 
sion of an able general, closed on the Lydian king 
before he could receive the sought-for aid, and thus 
put an end, in the briefest manner, to the separate 
existence of the kingdom of Croesus, who remained 
for more than thirty years the guest of himself and 
of successive Persian monarchs. Nor was this all ; 
the conquest of the rest of Asia Minor, by the aid 
of his Median generals Harpagus and Mazares im- 
mediately followed, while we may believe that the 
proposed alliance of Crcesus with Babylon and 
Egypt was not forgotten when Cyrus had leisure to 
turn against these powers his conquering legions. 

The next period of the life of Cyrus is involved 
in obscurity, and we know little more than that he 



22 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

was engaged in a series of wars, of the actual motives 
of which we are uninformed, with the Bactrians and 
other tribes of North-east Asia, which lasted for 
thirteen or fourteen years. As Arrian however 
places a Cyropolis (elsewhere called Cyreschata) on 
the Jaxartes, we may presume that even Sogdiana 
fell under the sway of Cyrus. Again, as we find 
traces of him to the extreme north-east, as far as the 
territory, believed to be that of the Sacae, and also 
to the south-east and south, in Seistan (Sacastene) 
and Khorasan, we must suppose that, at various in- 
tervals, he overran the whole district between the 
Jaxartes on the north, the Indus on the east, and the 
Indian Ocean on the south. Perhaps too, as sug- 
gested by Professor Rawlinson, these wars really re- 
sembled the annual out-marches recorded of the 
kings of Assyria, rather than a sustained and con- 
tinuous campaign of many years' duration. 

The most remarkable event, however, of the life 
of Cyrus is his conquest of Babylonia, the more so 
that he appears here in direct connection with a 
portion of the Bible history, which is, I believe, ac- 
cepted as true by some who doubt almost everything 
else. "It was not," says Professor Rawlinson, 
"till B.C. 539, when he was nearly sixty years of 
age, that the Persian monarch felt himself free to 
turn his attention to the great kingdom of the 
south;" and, though the accounts of this expedi- 
tion vary, they may on the whole be harmonized 
without much difficulty. According to Herodotus, 
on his march from Ecbatana towards Babylon, Cyrus 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 23 

was delayed a whole summer and autumn in punish- 
ing, by the division of its stream into 360 smaller 
channels, the river Gyndes, in which one of the 
sacred white horses had been accidentally drowned ; 
an act apparently silly, but perhaps intended, either 
to afford his army the opportunity of wintering in a 
mild climate under tents, or, what is more likely, 
done with the view of misleading the Babylonians 
as to the nature of the proposed attack. 

Few details have been preserved of the actions of 
Cyrus after passing the Gyndes, but it is agreed that 
Nabonidus, the then King of Babylon, on his de- 
feat, threw himself into the adjacent town of Bor- 
sippa, leaving his youthful son Belshazzar,* to de- 
fend the great city itself as best he could. And in 
this Belshazzar might have been successful, had not 
Cyrus drawn off the waters of the Euphrates by 
cutting several canals above the city, so as to make 
the river shallow and fordable. 

The accounts of the actual taking of Babylon, in 
the Bible, Xenophon, and Herodotus mainly agree ; 
nor, indeed, can we doubt that Cyrus was aware of 
an approaching festival in which the whole popula- 
tion would be engrossed, though he could hardly 

* This name, slightly modified as Bil-shar-uzur, occurs on three 
cylinders found at " Ur of the Chaldees," by Mr. John Taylor: it 
is certain that he was the eldest son of Nabunit (Nabonidus in 
Berosus, Labynetus in Herodotus), and that he governed Babylon 
on his father's retirement to Borsippa. The reading by Sir Henry 
Rawlinson of this name is unquestionable ; it has moreover been 
similarly read by M. Oppert on cylinders found at Abu Shahrein 
in Lower Chaldsea. 



24 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

have expected that the gates would have been left 
wholly unguarded. Babylon, as we know from Hero- 
dotus, was surrounded by enormous walls and a wet 
ditch, while, recently, Nabonidus had lined the sides 
of the river with other and similar walls, the bricks 
of which bear his name in Cuneiform characters, 
moreover had also added brazen gates for a further 
protection. 

Cyrus, then, having prepared his trenches, quietly 
abided his time ; till, at length, when the night of 
the festival came round, finding the water sufficiently 
shallow, he entered the city through the river gates, 
which had been incautiously left open, and, in a 
brief period, carried all before him : then it was, as 
we are told, that messengers ran to and fro " to show 
the king of Babylon that his city was taken at one 
end. ' ' * When morning came Cyrus found himself 
master of the great city, and a Shemitic emperor had 
ceased to rule in "Babylon the glory of the Chal- 
dees' excellency." Not long after, on the surrender 
of Borsippa, the old monarch Nabonidus was sent to 
Carman ia; but whether as its viceroy we are not in- 
formed. It is fair to suppose that, though Belshazzar 
was but a youth, and naturally, therefore, little if at 
all skilled in war, he would, but for this coup de 
main, have prevented a town, in size representing a 
fortified territory, falling so readily to an enemy 
probably not better provided for a lengthened siege 
than were the Assyrians of old. 

* Jerem. xi. 31. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 2$ 

The fall of Babylon led to two immediate results: 
viz. the transference of the ancient Shemitic idola- 
trous empire, to the Zoroastrian Persians, and the 
restoration of the Jews.* It is indeed not possible 
to discuss here the motives of Cyrus for this latter 
act ; which may well have been of a mixed kind : 
thus while he would naturally have been strongly 
interested in the only monotheistical people dwelling 
near him, he must as naturally have desired to secure 
Jewish neutrality, if not active support, in the de- 
signs he had already entertained against Egypt, f 
What, however, strikes one as extraordinary is, that 
he did not, so far as is recorded, take any steps to 
reduce Phoenicia, though, in a war with Egypt, the 
resources of that remarkable country would have 
told more against him than any opposition on the 
part of the Jews. 

Of the rest of the life of Cyrus, we have no satis- 
factory account ; but it is probable that he fell in a 
war with some of the tribes to the north-east of Asia, 
a conflict on the origin of which it is easy enough to 
speculate, as the wild tribes of that part of Asia, like 

* I may here remark that what is known as the " Captivity of the 
Jews," was the combined result of two expeditions against 
Judaea: (i) Of that in the third year of Jehoiakim, when Nebu- 
chadnezzar was only the deputy of his father (Dan. i. 2 ; 2 Kings 
xxiv. 1; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6, 7), on which occasion, though Daniel 
and Jehoiakim were carried to Babylon, we do not know that Je- 
rusalem was actually taken. This expedition is noticed by Berosus. 
(2) Of that in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, at first led by 
his generals, but subsequently by the king in person (Jerem. lii. 
28). 

f Herod, i. 153. 



26 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

other nomads, are almost always in a state of partial 
insurrection. Certain, however, it is, that he died 
B.C. 529, after a reign of twenty-nine years, while 
his remarkable tomb at Pasargadae, affords some 
evidence that his body was recovered and carried 
back to the centre of his kingdom or faith. Professor 
Rawlinson justly remarks that " the character of 
Cyrus as represented to us by the Greeks, is the most 
favorable that we possess of any early Oriental mon- 
arch. ' ' 

On the death of Cyrus a conqueror rather than an 
administrator, his vast domains mainly descended to 
his eldest son Cambyses, but Cyrus, at the same 
time, arranged that his second son, Bardes, or, as he 
is called in Greek history, Smerdis, should receive 
certain provinces as his patrimony ; a plan, in itself 
sufficiently questionable, especially in an empire as 
yet scarcely organized, and one therefore promptly 
put an end to by Cambyses. Bardes, by his orders, 
was slain by Prexaspes, at Susa, but in a manner so 
secret as to lead to the remarkable impersonation we 
shall presently notice. 

The first act of Cambyses was to attempt the carry- 
ing out of his father's schemes for the conquest of 
Egypt ; so, to provoke a quarrel, he demanded of 
the weak king of Egypt his daughter as a second 
wife. Amasis complied with the request to the letter 
but not to the spirit, as, instead of his daughter, he 
sent another damsel, who is said herself to have re- 
vealed to Cambyses the imposition practised on him 
by the Egyptian monarch. This was alone a suffi- 



HISTORY OF PERSIA, 27 

cient pretext for war ; but four years elapsed before 
Cambyses was able to secure the naval aid of Tyre 
and Cyprus. 

The Egyptians fought bravely, the more so, per- 
haps, that their new ruler, Psammenitus, was largely 
aided by Greek and Carian mercenaries ; but, after a 
decisive battle fought near Pelusium, the overthrow, 
perhaps we ought rather to say the collapse, of 
Egypt, became complete. Psammenitus, some time 
after surrendering at discretion, was kindly treated 
by the conqueror, and, but for a subsequent con- 
spiracy, would, like the king of the Sacse under 
Cyrus, have probably been permitted to remain a 
tributary king, perhaps even as viceroy of Egypt 
under Cambyses. 

Egypt once subdued, the adjacent tribes of the 
Libyans, with the Greeks of Barca and Cyrene, pro- 
fessed submission, and, had Cambyses been content 
with such peaceful acquisitions, his future reign 
might have been one of repose and prosperity. 
Cambyses, however, inherited something of his 
father's grandeur of character: to have left, there- 
fore, Ethiopia and Carthage unsubdued, seemed to 
him unchivalrous. He failed, however, utterly in 
both of these schemes : in the case of Carthage, the 
Phoenicians, as yet unsubdued by Persia, refused to 
fight against their kindred colonies; and, in the case 
of Lybia, one army sent from Thebes against Am- 
nion, perished in the desert, while another, led by 
the king in person, failed to force its way into Nubia. 
The only result was that the Persians lost heart, 



28 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

while the Egyptians were encouraged to resist, and 
that Cambyses at once saw his error and his danger. 
The old king of Egypt, up to this time well treated, 
was now seized and executed ; while the native offi- 
cers were apprehended and slain, and a severity 
adopted wholly alien to the usual habits of the Per- 
sians. The priests, as the natural leaders of the 
people, were everywhere exposed to needless insult 
and cruelty; Cambyses, it is said, setting the ex- 
ample by stabbing the sacred calf, believed by all 
Egyptians to be the incarnation of Apis. Egypt, 
" the basest of the nations," tamely submitted, and 
made no further effort for many years to shake off 
the iron yoke of the Persians, becoming thus, as 
Professor Rawlinson observes, "the obsequious slave 
of Persia, ' ' and obeying, as it would seem cheerfully, 
mandates she had not the spirit to resist. 

But a new trouble was about to befall Cambyses, 
the first springs of which were, as has been remarked, 
suggested by the secret execution of his brother 
Bardes : though, even without this, his long absence 
from his capital, a fatal error in Eastern countries, 
would have given ample opportunities to any un- 
quiet spirits at home. On his way homeward we are 
told that he was met by a herald, who announced 
that he had ceased to reign, and that the allegiance 
of Persians was now due to his brother Bardes. At 
first it would seem that Cambyses was himself taken 
in, but he soon detected the imposition, and then, 
with little reason, destroyed himself by his own 
hand : Herodotus, writing many years later, softens 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 29 

down this story, and makes him die of a trifling 
accident. 

It is difficult to imagine why Cambyses committed 
an act at once so cowardly and so foolish ; especially 
as he was returning to his own country at the head 
of an army, not in itself likely, one would think, to 
make common cause with the first usurper who might 
set up his pretensions to the empire. Nor, indeed, 
can we suppose that his soldiers would have been led 
to act thus, or wholly endorse the legends Herodotus 
has preserved, which represent Cambyses as a mon- 
ster of tyranny ; Heeren speaks to the point, where 
he says that we ought to be on our guard with 
reference to the stories related of this prince, as our 
information about him is mainly due to the report 
of his bitterest enemies, the Egyptian priests. There 
is, indeed, nothing, as Bishop Thirlwall has re- 
marked, to show "that the actions ascribed to him 
are more extravagant than those recorded of other 
despots, whose minds were only disturbed by the 
possession of arbitrary power" — yet Mr. Grote, 
generally so calm and dispassionate, accepts the 
madness of Cambyses as an established fact. 

The tale of the uprising of the Pseudo-Bardes, is 
but another instance of a revolution, supported if not 
suggested by religious motives, in so far as it was the 
reply on the part of the nature-worshippers to Cyrus 
and to his friends, the high caste followers of Zoro- 
aster. From the superiority in numbers of the Medes 
to the Persians, as already pointed out, the army of 
Cambyses must have been largely recruited from the 



30 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

masses whose secret sympathies were with Magism, 
and the king probably knew that he could not count 
on them in any direct attack made on their ancient 
beliefs or practices. Nor can it be denied that Cam- 
byses himself had done much, though unconsciously, 
to favor the sedition which led to his own suicidal 
act, in that on his march to Egypt he had left behind 
him, as the controller of the royal household, a 
Magian, Palizeithes, a man who, once gained to the 
side of a revolting faction of his own fellow-believers, 
would, of course, be of the greatest use to them. 
Add to which, the tales of the losses Cambyses had 
met with in Egypt, though doubtless much exagge- 
rated, would naturally have led the Magian party to 
believe the game completely in their hands. 

Herodotus supposed that the Pseudo-Bardes was, 
like the young man he personated, really named 
Smerdis ; but we now know from the Behistan in- 
scription that his name was Gomates. Naturally the 
foolish self-murder of Cambyses gave renewed hopes 
to the conspirators, and when some time had elapsed, 
and no discovery had been made, bolder steps were 
adopted, and the new reign was inaugurated by a 
measure sure to be popular, the remission of all the 
taxes for three years : then, following the usual 
Oriental custom, the Pseudo-Bardes married all the 
wives of his predecessor ; at the same time, to prevent 
intercommunication between these ladies, giving to 
each one a separate establishment. 

His next step was to overthrow the existing system 
of religion, by destroying the Zoroastrian temples 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 3 1 

and establishing Magian rites in the place of the 
former ceremonies ; a change not unlikely to have 
found favor with many, probably with the majority 
of the mixed population ; but it must at the same 
time be remembered that the Pseudo-Bardes was 
himself a Persian not a Mede, and therefore that his 
usurpation was not a Median revolt, as some writers 
like Heeren, Grote, and Niebuhr have supposed.* 

But a system of complete isolation (for the Pseudo- 
Bardes neither left his palace, nor admitted even the 
highest of his nobles into it), must sooner or later 
have aroused the suspicion that all was not right at 
Court. At length, some of the leading Persians 
began to take counsel together, and Darius, the son 
of Hystaspes, was acknowledged as their leader. We 
have no details of what took place, except that the 
conspirators were successful, the impostor being 
slain, according to Darius's own account, in Media; 
Darius adds that he proceeded himself, at once, to 
the capital (probably) Ecbatana, with his head, and 
caused a general assassination of all the Magi that 
could be found, an event subsequently recorded by 
an annual festival called the " Magophonia" or 
"Slaughter of the Magi." In the more essential 
parts of this story, Herodotus agrees with Darius's 
own narrative on his inscription, and where he 

* The usurpation of the Pseudo-Bardes checked for a while the 
carrying out of the decree of Cyrus for the rebuilding of the temple 
of Jerusalem ; and the Samaritans were able to persuade the usur- 
per to counter-order these works, and to make " the Jews to cease, 
by force and power." (Ezra iv. 23). 



32 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

varies from it, this variation is probably due to the 
uncertainty of oral testimony. Eighty years after 
the events, when the Greek historian wrote, there 
would have been but few persons able to correctly 
interpret the Cuneiform records; while we do not 
know that he was ever himself in Persia, or saw any 
of the monuments himself. It has been supposed 
that after the Magophonia, the principal chieftains 
who had joined with Darius, remained about the 
throne, and that thus a sort of hereditary nobility 
grew up, the king being no longer the sole fountain 
or dispenser of honor. But this, I fancy, is rather a 
Western interpretation of a course of action, by no 
means uncommon in Oriental history. 

Darius ascended the throne on January i, b. c. 521, 
at first, as it would seem, with little opposition from 
the provinces immediately around him, but this 
period of repose was of brief duration, and he soon 
encountered a series of formidable rebellions in many 
parts of his extensive dominions, and was in fact 
occupied fully six years in gradually stamping out 
their ashes. Some of these, though not all, were 
doubtless connected with the overthrow of Magism ; 
but those of the greatest importance, such as the first 
revolt of Babylon, and those of Assyria and Egypt, 
had probably little or nothing to do with religious 
matters. In most cases, personation was the ordi- 
nary practice, the rebel asserting that he was the 
son, grandson, or lineal descendant of some pre- 
viously famous monarch. Against the Babylonians 
Darius marched in person, and, after two great 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 33 

battles, captured the city of Babylon ; in most other 
cases, he was content to send one or other of the six 
chiefs, as Hydarnes and Gobryas, &c. It would also 
appear that against the mountain tribes to the north 
Darius found it necessary to march himself, as, though 
a series of victories had been duly claimed by his 
generals, it is clear that these had been temporary 
if not nominal. In the course of this war, the Ecba- 
tana of Upper Media (Takt-i-Suleiman) fell into his 
hands ; while the rebellion in Parthia and Hyrcania 
was crushed by an advance upon Rhages. Professor 
Rawlinson has pointed out that, so far as there is 
any historical substratum to the book of Judith, the 
events there related belong to this period, as the 
story given in that apocryphal book agrees fairly 
with what we can gather from other sources. The 
Arphaxad taken prisoner at Rhages must, on this 
supposition, be the rebel Xathrites, and Nebuchado- 
nosor Darius himself. The Behistan inscription, is 
believed to have been executed about B. c. 516-515, 
and, if so, must have been carved during the period 
of repose which followed the suppression of the first 
great rebellions, or in the fifth or sixth years of 
Darius. 

Having reduced the various revolts that had so 
long troubled his empire, Darius divided his vast 
dominions into a series of local governments, called 
"satrapies,"* their number ranging between twenty 

* This word is of Sanskrit origin, and the office was common to 
many of the western Asiatic kingdoms. Thus Sargon speaks of his 
" chief of provinces, satraps, wise men," &c, (Oppert.Hist.de 
C 



34 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

at their commencement and twenty-nine, as recorded 
on one of his latest inscriptions. The satraps were en- 
trusted with the complete rule of their own satrapies, 
and with the power of life and death, but were liable 
to recall or removal whenever this step seemed good 
to the monarch. They were selected from any class 
at the king's pleasure ; even Greeks, such as Xeno- 
crates and Memnon being occasionally promoted to 
this office. In some instances, as in that of Cilicia, 
a native dynasty was allowed to bear rule in its own 
province, while Persia, or rather Persis, alone paid 
no tribute. 

The fiscal arrangements consisted chiefly in re- 
ducing all dues to a fixed sum in money or kind, but 
the tribute thus exacted was in too many instances 
neither paid in itself, nor judiciously collected. Be- 
sides this, each province paid largely of what it was 
most famed for : thus Egypt supplied vast quantities 
of grain; Media, sheep, mules, and horses; Armenia, 
colts; Cilicia, white horses, &c. Some provinces, 
too, were much more heavily burdened with imposts 
than others. Thus in Persia itself, where water was 
generally scarce, the king claimed as his right the 
rivers and streamlets, and imposed heavy 'fines for 
opening the sluices required for the irrigation of the 

Sargonides, p. 33.) They were, in fact, like our lord lieutenants 
of Ireland, governors of the Cape, New Zealand, &c. The same 
idea is implied in Isaiah x. 8, "Are not my princes altogether 
kings?" The royal title of "king of kings " denoted the chief 
king over a number of such rulers, each himself a king. Thus 
Belib and Merodach-baladan were viceroys or satraps of Babylon, 
under the kingdom of Assyria. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 35 

fields. One direct advantage was certainly obtained 
by this plan, that it enabled the chief ruler to know- 
on what amount of revenue he could count ; and, 
though the people at large often, doubtless, suffered 
from the selfish oppression of the satraps, who took 
care to pay themselves handsomely while they pro- 
vided for the royal demands, they secured this ad- 
vantage, that the central government was directly 
interested in supporting them against proconsular 
rapacity. Obviously, the wiser and gentler the rule 
of the satrap, the better chance for the crown to 
secure its demands from the actual cultivators of the 
soil. 

The next point Darius considered was the establish- 
ment of efficient checks on the satraps themselves, 
and here he devised a scheme well fitted for this pur- 
pose, consisting as it did in the threefold power of 
the satrap, or civil governor, of the commander of 
the troops, and of his own secretary, the duties of 
each office being so arranged as to prevent the con- 
centration of these powers in any one person. Thus 
neither of the two former could plan or carry out an 
insurrection without being outwitted by a minister, 
who in the province was rightly deemed to be the 
king's " eye " and "ear." The provinces, too, 
themselves were liable to the inspection of another 
officer, who, with an armed force, acted directly for 
the king in the redressing of grievances. It is hardly 
necessary to add that the success of such a system 
depended greatly on the personal vigor of the sover- 
eign ; and, hence, that it rapidly degenerated under 



36 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

the later Persian princes, till at length the same per" 
son often secured all the three offices himself, the 
satrap then becoming much the same as the Turkish 
pasha or the Persian bey of the present day, with 
powers practically unlimited. Posts, or rather a sys- 
tem of couriers, were also established along what 
was, hence, called the "royal road" from Susa to 
Sardis, with places for rest and change at convenient 
intervals. To Darius, probably, is also due the crea- 
tion of the first Oriental coinage ; his money, of 
which many specimens still exist, technically called 
from him "Darics," being pieces of gold and silver, 
weighing respectively 124 and 224 to 230 grains of 
pure metal, and having for their device a somewhat 
rude representation of an archer. Moreover we do 
not know of any other coins throughout the Persian 
empire for nearly two centuries subsequently to Da- 
rius himself. To his other great works, as his memo- 
rable inscription at Behistan, his palace at Susa, his 
buildings at Persepolis, and his tomb at Nakhsh-i- 
Rustam, we shall recur hereafter when we shall de- 
scribe the principal antiquities of Persia. 

After a period of peace, which may have lasted 
five or six years, subsequently to B.C. 516, Darius re- 
solved to carry out two other great wars, one to the 
East and the other to the West. It may be inferred 
from the Behistan inscription that the former pre- 
ceded the latter, as the name of India does not oc- 
cur on it : the inducement to it may have been the 
reports of those who had accompanied Cyrus in his 
expeditions in the direction of Central Asia. In 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 37 

order to ascertain the nature of the Indus itself, a 
fleet was ordered to navigate it under the command 
of a certain Scylax of Caryanda, and the fact that he 
accomplished this remarkable feat apparently with- 
out loss, proves either that the power of Darius was 
well known in those remote regions, or that the in- 
habitants were not unwilling to accept the king of 
Persia as their lord paramount. Anyhow, we cannot 
doubt that Darius was successful in annexing to his 
dominions the valleys of the Indus and of its afflu- 
ents, now known under the collective name of the 
Panjab, together with Scinde, its outlet to the Indian 
Ocean, deriving thence an immense tribute and 
opening out a vast trade. 

It has been thought by some distinguished scholars 
that to this trade between the East and West are due 
certain ancient alphabets found chiefly on the rocks 
in the west and south-west of India, with inscrip- 
tions on them of a date as early as 250 B.C. ; and it 
cannot be denied that there is much probability in 
favor of this view, especially as the evidence of a 
more remote alphabet of unquestionably Indian in- 
vention is, as yet, somewhat doubtful. The cha- 
racters on these inscriptions exhibit, as has been 
fully shown by James Prinsep and Prof. A. Weber, 
a striking resemblance to the earliest Phoenician al- 
phabet, and may naturally have been adopted from 
the necessities of a trade which, from the time of 
Solomon, and, possibly, still earlier than he, was 
carried on along the shores of the Indian Ocean, 
from the mouths of the Indus to the Gulf of Akaba. 



38 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Of Darius's next expedition, that against Thrace, 
we have ample details, the whole narrative indica- 
ting a well-considered scheme rather than an insane 
and foolish plan of mere aggression. Besides this, 
we may fairly suppose that Darius had clearly in his 
memory the Cimmerian inroad of a century before ; 
and that he may have judged it well to ascertain for 
himself the real nature of the populations who sup- 
plied such hordes, and at the same time to let them 
see how great his power really was. Again, as we 
know that he had some time previously despatched 
one Democedes on a cruise from Sidon to Europe, 
and that this officer actually went as far as Crotona, 
we may be sure that he had thereby acquired some 
knowledge of the characteristics of the climate, pro- 
ductions, and material wealth of the Greek nations 
to the West. Anyhow, the expedition into Scythia, 
as far North, Professor Rawlinson thinks, as the 
fiftieth parallel, can hardly have been merely a raid. 
Nay, more than this, as Darius was at this time 
master of the whole of Asia Minor, it may have 
seemed to him a wise policy to annex to his do- 
minions a tract of land in Europe, on which side his 
empire was peculiarly vulnerable. His careful pre- 
cautions are further shown, by his despatching Aria- 
ramnes, the satrap of Cappadocia, across- the Black 
Sea with a small fleet, to examine the Scythian 
coasts, a commission he so successfully performed 
that even the brother of the Scythian king was car- 
ried off, and much valuable information obtained. 

Darius then, with the aid of the Asiatic Greeks, 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 39 

having collected a fleet of 600 ships and a vast army- 
composed of all or most of the nations tributary to 
him, crossed the Bosphorus on a bridge constructed 
for him by a Greek, passed along the line of the 
Little, and crossed the Great Balkan, and conquered 
the Getse, who lived between that range and the 
Danube. Arrived at this great river, Darius crossed 
it by means of a bridge of boats, also built for him 
by the Greeks, and advanced into Scythia, leaving 
the defence of the bridge to his faithful Greeks. 
How far northward he actually penetrated is hard to 
say, but Herodotus tells us that he burnt the staple 
of Gelonus, a place Professor Rawlinson supposes to 
be near Voronej. Thence he fell back on his bridge, 
re-crossed the Danube and the Dardanelles, and re- 
turned to Sardis, leaving his general Megabyzus to 
complete the subjugation of Thrace itself. During 
the execution of this duty, Megabyzus compelled 
Alexander, the son of Amyntas, king of Macedon, 
to pay tribute, under the usual Persian symbols of 
earth and water ; and the principal of the Greek 
cities in the neighborhood, Byzantium, Chalcedon, 
&c, were subsequently reduced about B.C. 505 by 
Otanes, the successor in this command to Mega- 
byzus. From Sardis, Darius retired to Susa, where 
he built a great palace, the ruins of which have been 
recently explored by Mr. Loftus. 

It is, perhaps, as well to notice here two curious 
matters in connection with Susa ; the first, that in 
the Koyunjik Gallery, at the British Museum, there 
is a ground plan or map of a town, in the centre of 



4o 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 



which is a Cuneiform inscription, reading — " City 
of Madaktu;" a map older by more than two cen- 




turies than the famous bronze one of Hecatseus, 
which Aristagoras laid before the Spartan king Cleo- 
menes. This curious monument represents, accord- 
ing to Mr. Loftus, with minute accuracy, the ground 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 



41 



plan of the ancient capital of Susa, as laid open by 
his excavations. "The large mound," says he, 
"on the left of the sculpture, is without doubt the 
great mound or citadel, the smaller mound, the 
palace, while the town with its walls and date trees, 
exactly corresponds with the low eastern ruins."* 

Now, although the reading of the name "Ma- 
daktu, ' ' is accepted by all Cuneiform scholars, and 
probably represents a place named Badaca, about 
twenty-five miles from Susa, I do not see how we can 
ignore altogether Mr. Loftus's distinct identification : 
I am, inclined, therefore, to think that the sculptor, 
himself probably an Assyrian, has, in error, engraved 
on it " Madaktu," instead of " Susa." 

Mr. Loftus at the same time found among the 
ruins of Susa, a curious Greek Inscription, bearing 
the name of Pythagoras : the accompanying woodcut 
(from the paper impression, given to me by Mr. 
Loftus), exhibits the inscription as found, built in, 
topsy-turvy, and forming the base of a later column : 




Inscription of Pythagoras. 

nreAroPAs apistapxot 

2S2MATO$YAAE APPENEIAHN 

APPENEIAOY TOW STPATHTON 

TH2 20Y2IANH2 TON EAYTOY $IAON 

* Chaldaea and Susiana, p. 423. 



42 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 



It may be translated — "Pythagoras, son of Aristar- 
chus, captain of the body-guard ; (in honor of) his 
friend, Arreneides, the son of Arreneides, governor 
of Susiana." Both these officers were, we may pre- 
sume, Greeks in the service of the king of Persia ; 
and the form of the letters on the inscription suit 
well with a period not long antecedent to Alexander 
the Great. Most remarkably, there is in the British 
Museum a Persian silver dark, with the same Greek 
name, Pythagoras ; the only specimen of Persian 
money yet met with, bearing any inscription. . 

I have had this coin engraved here, inasmuch as 
it affords a good representation of the usual type of 
the daric — that is of those "Archers " of which we 
hear so much in Greek History, subsequently to the 
Retreat of the Ten Thousand, and because it is likely 
that this individual coin was struck to pay the 
Greek mercenaries whom Pythagoras commanded. 




Coin of Pythagoras. 



In his delightful residence at Susa Darius appa- 
rently remained for several years, nor would perhaps 
have undertaken any further expedition against the 
"Isles of the West," had he not been roused from 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 43 

his repose by events to which we shall now call 
attention. 

The great Ionian revolt, which ultimately led to 
the two Persian invasions of Greece, really sprang 
out of a comparatively petty quarrel between Arista- 
goras of Miletus and a Persian general named Mega- 
bates ; the result being a general uprising in all the 
Greek cities of Asia Minor against their Persian 
rulers, and the almost universal overthrow of the 
Persian authority. The first outbreak was confined 
to the cities of Ionia and yEolis, but as it was soon 
seen that they could not stand alone, help was 
sought from Greece, but given with a grudging hand, 
even by Athens, while Sparta gave none. The chief 
early event of the outbreak was the capture and 
burning of Sardis, the western capital of the great 
king's empire. So daring a deed could not be left 
unavenged : moreover the flames of rebellion soon 
included many places far distant from one another, 
and but little interested in the causes that had led 
to the first insurrection. Sending, therefore, an 
efficient force, Darius gradually reconquered each 
place, defeated the Ionian fleet utterly in the battle 
of Lade, and retook Miletus, the Greeks having to 
rue the day when they allowed themselves to enter- 
tain the wild schemes of Aristagoras ; moreover, the 
character of the outbreak naturally led Darius to 
plan a further attack on his own part, in which he 
hoped to make an example of those European 
powers who had thought fit to help their Asiatic 
brethren. 



44 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

For this purpose Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, 
and the son-in-law of Darius, was ordered to advance 
with a powerful force by the way of Thrace, Mace- 
donia and Thessaly, against Eretria and Athens. On 
his way, by doing all he could to conciliate the 
Greeks of the towns themselves, and by permitting 
the people to establish democratic councils in the 
place of "tyrants," Mardonius was at first completely 
successful, in that he captured Thasos and its gold 
mines, and reduced Macedonia to the status of a 
Persian province : but here his good fortune deserted 
him: the elements fought on the side of the Greeks, 
and, on attempting to round Mount Athos, 300 of 
his ships and 20,000 of his men found a watery grave; 
more than this, he suffered further heavy loss by the 
night attack of the Thracian tribe of the Brigae, the 
result being his retreat into Asia Minor dispirited at 
his losses. But Darius himself was not so easily cast 
down ; a fresh army under Datis was collected, and 
a direct descent was made two years afterwards upon 
Eretria and Attica. The glorious victory of Marathon 
was the reply of the Greeks, under Miltiades, to this 
second attack upon their liberties. The loss Darius 
suffered in the failure of these two great invasions 
must have been very severe even to a king, at that 
time, of almost unlimited resources ; but he was not, 
apparently, appalled by these misfortunes. A third 
invasion was planned, and simultaneously with it, 
one against Egypt, to be led in person by Darius, 
but, before all the preparations could be completed, 
he himself was dead. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 45 

Darius died B.C. 486, after a reign of thirty-five 
years, and was immediately succeeded by Xerxes, his 
son by Atossa. 

The position of Persia when Darius died is the 
best evidence of administrative abilities, which have 
been rather unduly estimated by some writers of 
eminence. It is clear that if Cyrus deserves the title 
of the actual founder of the empire, in that he was 
the first to conquer a large portion of the territory 
his successors ruled, Darius more, that he welded it 
into a consistent and well-working machine, which, 
indeed, it was no fault of Cyrus that he had been 
compelled to leave in the rough. Though as a war- 
rior unquestionably inferior to Cyrus, and in other 
respects scarcely so grand a character, Darius de- 
serves, as Professor Rawlinson has remarked, " the 
credit of energy, vigor, foresight, and judicious 
management in his military expeditions, of prompt- 
ness in resolving, and ability in executing, of discri- 
mination in the selection of his generals, and of a 
power of combination not often found in Oriental 
commanders." 



CHAPTER II. 

Xerxes — Canal of Athos — Thermopylae — Salamis — Artaxerxes I. 
— Darius II. — Artaxerxes II. — Cyrus the Younger — Artaxerxes 
III. (Ochus) — Darius III. — Alexander— Graneikus — Issus — Visit 
to Jerusalem — Arbela. 

Xerxes,* who succeeded to the throne of Darius 
B.C. 486, was not his eldest son; he was, however, 
the son born to him while actually king, and further, 
by his mother, Atossa, the lineal descendant of Cy- 
rus. As a man of easy temper and luxurious habits, 
he was at first disinclined to take up the two wars 
his father had bequeathed to him ; and would have 
preferred limiting himself to the re-subjugation of 
Egypt. Such a plan was not, however, agreeable to 
the young nobles about him, still less to Mardonius, 
who was naturally anxious to retrieve his past ill-luck. 
Add to which, there were Greek traitors at his Court, 
to spur him on, careless what misery they caused 
their own country, so only their own base revenges 
were gratified. Thus the Peisistratidse sought rein- 
statement at Athens, and Demaratus at Sparta ; the 
general effect being, that Xerxes was led to suppose 
he had actually a party in Greece who would support 

* As Ahasuerus is the natural Hebrew form of the Persian 
Khshayarsha, it is probable that Xerxes is the Monarch of the 
book of Esther. 

46 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 47 

him for his own sake. Before, however, he was pre- 
pared to throw his whole weight against Greece, he 
resolved to crush two minor revolts, one, that of the 
Egyptians, the other, that of the Babylonians. Both 
actions were quickly executed. Supple Egypt had 
to groan under greatly increased burdens, and 
Babylon to mourn the ruin of the great temple of 
Nebuchadnezzar and of many other of her most 
precious shrines. 

Four years altogether were spent in prodigious 
preparations, apparently not without much judgment 
and foresight ; thus it was resolved to throw a solid 
bridge across the Hellespont, and to cut through the 
promontory of Mount Athos. It will be recollected 
that it was at one time the fashion to doubt (as did 
Juvenal, perhaps only because it suited his theme at 
the time he was writing) the truth of the cutting a 
ship-canal through the narrow neck which connects 
Athos with the mainland : but this matter has been 
completely set at rest by the recent careful surveys 
of Captain Spratt, R. N., who states that the canal 
is about 2500 yards long, and still, occasionally, in 
some places full of water. The modern name of 
the peninsula, Provlaka, in fact, confirms the general 
evidence for the truth of the story, as this name is 
evidently from npoauXag, " in front of the furrow or 
canal." That the sea was an enemy with which 
Persian ships could not as yet satisfactorily cope, is 
no less clear from the losses Xerxes sustained, in 
spite of his canal, along the opposite coast of Mag- 
nesia in Asia Minor. Nor, indeed, need either the 



48 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

canal or the bridge be cited, as they have been 
sometimes, as though they were instances of mere 
vain-glory ; on the contrary, both were certainly 
suggested by previously acquired experience. The 
bridge must have been of great strength to allow of 
such a host passing over it in seven days ; indeed, 
^schylus calls it 6dta/j.a, a solid road, rather than a 
bridge. The builders, however, of the mounds of 
Susa, would have thought little enough of either 
work. Nor, indeed, is there any reason for suspect- 
ing any essential error in the narrative of Hero- 
dotus, and the account he gives may be taken as 
substantially true : for many persons must have been 
alive when he wrote, only forty years after these 
events, who could and would have contradicted him, 
had his history been grossly inaccurate. 

Xerxes, after passing the winter at Sardis, ad- 
vanced to the Hellespont, whither he had already 
directed the different contingents of his vast army 
to converge. Though the numbers given by Hero- 
dotus doubtless exceed the reality, the actual contri- 
butions of forty-seven or forty-nine associated pro- 
vinces must have produced an enormous multitude. 
Moreover, this estimate no doubt includes every 
one ; not merely the fighting men, but the harem 
and its numerous attendants, the sutlers and camp 
followers. In the history of any of the great Asiatic 
invaders, Timur, Mahmud of Ghazna, Baber or 
Nadir Shah, numbers are mentioned which sound 
prodigious by the side of the largest European 
armies ; and yet a million is given for the host that 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 49 

started on the first and most disastrous of the Cru- 
sades, and the same number were under arms to 
protect the peace (!) just before Napoleon's escape 
from Elba : as Professor Rawlinson justly observes, 
" figures in the mouth of an Oriental are vague and 
almost unmeaning — armies are never really counted. ' ' 
There is no such thing as a fixed and definite 
"strength" of a division, or of a "battalion." 

It is interesting to note that each contingent of 
this vast armament came equipped in its national dress 
and arms and under its own commander ; while the 
king himself was surrounded by a picked body of 
Persians, "the immortals," consisting of 10,000 
foot, the best and the bravest of his own native 
soldiers. The army appears to have advanced in 
three divisions, from Sardis to the Hellespont, partly 
along the shore and partly inland, and to have oc- 
cupied Northern Greece almost without opposition. 
Some minor incidents occurred on the way, such as a 
trial of seamanship, in which the Sidonians proved 
themselves the best ; and some losses from thunder- 
storms, and from lions who, descending from the 
Thessalian hills, devoured some of the baggage 
horses. All the Greek states, with the exception of 
Athens and Sparta, at once succumbed, and sent 
messengers to Xerxes, bearing earth and water, the 
symbols of their submission : while the handful of 
brave men who resolved to resist the invasion, find- 
ing their proposed positions in the Thessalian hills 
could be easily turned, fell back on Thermopylae. 
They, perhaps, did not reflect that the troops of 

D 



50 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Media and Persia were many of them as much 
mountaineers as themselves, and that scrambling over 
Pelion or Ossa was child's play after what they had 
experienced at home. 

The position of Thermopylae was well chosen, its 
defenders at first feeling sure of holding it against 
any odds ; indeed during the whole of the first day 
the Persians were driven back with very heavy loss. 
But treachery did what numbers could not accom- 
plish. A mountain track was found, and led by a 
native, picked men of the Persian army were able, 
under the shelter of a dark night, to cross behind the 
Greeks, so that on the following morning they found 
themselves between two fires. The result could not 
then have been long doubtful, but to the immortal 
fame of one small band, Leonidas and his Spartans 
disdained to fly, and perished to a man. The Persian 
host then pressed onward, the rest of the Greek army 
in dismay, doubt, and irresolution, making scarcely 
any resistance ; Phocis and Bceotia were traversed, 
Athens laid in ashes, and apparently all Greece was 
at the feet of the conqueror. Nothing remained but 
the ships, and, here, we might have expected them 
to have taken heart from the experience they had 
gained at Artemisium : — yet, even here it was long 
doubtful whether the retreating tactics of the army 
would not extend to the navy also. 

It is impossible here to go into the details of the 
great events that followed and which fill so many in- 
teresting pages in the admirable histories of Thirlwall 
and Grote. But it ought to be recollected, that even 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 5 1 

the success of the great and glorious battle of Sala- 
mis, was far more the result of a happy accident 
than of a well-conceived or well-concerted plan. 
It is certain that the Greek leaders as a body would 
have preferred avoiding the conflict, and but for the 
artifice of Themistocles, which induced the Persians 
to hem them in, they would have fled, perhaps to 
Sicily. In fact, the commanders were still angrily 
disputing when a Tenian ship, which had escaped the 
Persians, came up and told them they had now no 
alternative but to cut their way through as best they 
could. But when the actual fight took place, the is- 
sue was not long doubtful ; the small but active force 
of the Greeks being considerably aided by the Per- 
sian plan of placing their vessels in lines one behind 
the other, the immediate effect of which was that 
their fleet, as at Artemisium, soon became a con- 
fused mass of vessels, unable to make any separate 
or individual effort. Thus five hundred vessels 
perished miserably, the whole sea being covered with 
their wrecks. 

Salamis was the turning point of the war and the 
grave of the hopes of Xerxes. This conflict over, 
he at once retraced his steps, but he was doomed to 
further disappointment, as his great bridge over the 
Hellespont had failed him and had been swept away 
by the storms. The would-be conqueror of Greece 
is said to have crossed doubtfully in a single vessel, 
where but a short time before he had led his tens of 
thousands. " Of all the mighty host which had 
gone forth from the Lydian capital in the spring, 



52 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

not many thousands can have re-entered it in the 
autumn." 

But, though he had himself retired in disgrace 
from unconquered Greece, Xerxes would not give 
the game up, the more so that Mardonius still main- 
tained that, with his 300,000 veteran troops, he must 
sooner or later reduce Greece to a satrapy of Persia. 
And, indeed, at that time, Mardonius had some 
ground for his hopes, as affairs in Greece were griev- 
ously out of joint. Thus the Argives had made their 
own petty treaty with the Persians; Sparta held 
aloof in sullen hesitation ; while Athens alone stood 
undaunted. But a change soon came, the more wel- 
come that it was scarcely expected. Pausanias, a 
man of ability and courage, became regent of the 
youthful Leonidas ; a Spartan army of considerable 
force was collected, and in the great battle of Plataea, 
wherein the Greek assailants were barely one-fourth 
of their opponents, the victory was complete and 
crushing. Mardonius, it is true, was able to prevent 
the junction of the Athenians and Spartans, but each 
Greek force was separately successful, and Mardonius 
himself fell. 

The victorious Greeks at once resolved to carry 
on the war effectively, and, not content with driving 
the Persians out of Greece, proposed even to invade 
Asia Minor itself. Indeed, both parties were now 
able to form a juster estimate of their respective 
strength, the Persians themselves admitting that in 
everything necessary to make good soldiers, the 
Greeks were greatly their superiors. The distance 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 53 

between Greece and the capital of Persia alone pre- 
served to the Persians, for another hundred and fifty 
years, an empire, the fate of which was already 
doomed on the plains of Platsea. The immediate 
result of the successes of the Greeks was the loss to 
Persia of her European provinces, and the recovery 
by Macedonia, Pseonia, and Thrace, of liberties 
their early and tame submission to the Persians 
hardly entitled them to regain ; and what was a 
greater misfortune to the great king, the decision of 
the conquerors to transfer the war to Asia Minor. 

Thus, at once collecting their fleet, the Athenians 
made an attack on the Persians at Mycale, and 
routed utterly the remains of the fleet which had 
escaped from Salamis; while, soon after, Cimon, the 
son of Miltiades, completely destroyed at the mouth 
of the Eurymedon (b.c. 466) a Phoenician fleet of 
more than 300 vessels together with the Persian 
army encamped along the shore, crushing also, near 
Cyprus, another squadron on its way to help their 
brethren. It is likely that these repeated misfortunes 
aroused discontent in Persia, for, not long after- 
wards, Xerxes was murdered by two of his chief 
men, as some have thought at the instigation of his 
wife Amestris (the Vashti of Esther), who might well 
have been jealous of his too notorious gallantries. 
There is little that can be said for Xerxes, for, 
during a reign of twenty years, he was scarcely more 
than an ordinary Oriental despot, the nominal head 
of a Court where license of every kind existed 
unchecked. The intrigues of the seraglio, the bane 



54 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

of most Oriental dynasties, in his reign began to 
produce their usual results ; but the decline of the 
Persian supremacy in Western Asia was delayed yet 
a little longer. 

Xerxes was succeeded (b.c. 466-5) by his third 
son, Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus),* who was at once 
involved in two important wars, in both of which 
he was successful. In the first, B.C. 460, he crushed 
a revolt of the Bactrians headed by his brother 
Hystaspes; in the second, he reduced Inarus and 
Amyrtseus, who had thrown off the Persian yoke in 
Egypt ; moreover he had the yet greater glory of 
humbling the pride of Athens, who had sent a con- 
siderable fleet to the aid of the Egyptians, B.C. 455. 

Peace having been made between Athens and 
Persia, Artaxerxes had no further trouble to the end 
of his reign, with the exception of the revolt of 
Syria, in which the satrap Megabyzus showed the 
growing weakness of the Persian monarchy by dic- 
tating his own form of submission, and remaining 
afterwards on intimate terms with the monarch he had 
successfully defied in arms. Of the private life of 
Artaxerxes we know little, except that he seems to 
have been personally of a kind disposition. He led 
no expedition in person, and did little during a long 
reign to increase the dignity of his position or to 
enlarge the boundaries of his empire. The peace 
with Athens was perhaps necessary, but by no means 
creditable to the might of Persia, while his condo- 

* Artaxerxes I. was the Monarch who sent Ezra and Nehemiah 
to Jerusalem. — Ezra vii. i, Nehemiah ii. 1-8. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 55 

nation of Megabyzus's rebellion gave fatal evidence 
of the feeble grasp with which he held the once 
proud sceptre of the Achasmenidse. 

The story of his successor, known as Darius II., 
Nothus (b.c. 425-4), is but one continued tale of in- 
trigues, assassinations, and rebellions ; the latter gene- 
rally quelled with greater or less ease, according to the 
amount of gold lavished by the royal treasury. Of 
these the two principal ones were those by his brother 
Arsites, and by Pissuthnes, a Lydian, both of whom 
had relied for whatever success they might obtain on 
that broken reed, bribes to Greek mercenaries. 
Thenceforward, indeed, Persian gold ruled the whole 
of the Western world ; and the Persians discovered 
that there was one thing at least Greek patriotism could 
not resist. From this time, all that was required was 
to play off one state against the other; in other 
words to supply each in its turn, whether Sparta, 
Thebes or Athens, with an adequate amount of the 
precious metal. To prolong the mutual and suicidal 
jealousies of the different states, to help each in its 
turn, but to allow no one to become predominant, 
was the policy of the Court of Susa, and of the great 
satraps, Tissaphernes, and Pharnabazus. " Greek 
generals," says Professor Rawlinson, "commanded 
Persian armies ; Greek captains manceuvered Persian 
fleets ; the very rank and file of the standing army, 
came to be almost as much Greek as Persian." 
Darius Nothus, (his nickname might perhaps suggest 
this), was in every sense the worst of the monarchs 
who had as yet ascended the Persian throne. 



56 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

" Contrary to his sworn word, he murdered his 
brothers Secydianus and Arsites, broke faith with 
Pissuthnes, and sanctioned the wholesale execution 
of the relatives of Terituchmes. " During his reign, 
while the eunuchs of the palace rose to great power, 
the central authority of the state was relaxed more 
and more, the principal satraps being to a great ex- 
tent independent, nay, often holding their fiefs as a 
sort of patrimony, passing on from father to son. 

Nothus was succeeded by Artaxerxes II. Mneraon 
(b.c. 405), not, however, without an effort on the 
part of his mother Parysates, to substitute in his 
place her younger and abler son, the Cyrus the 
Younger of history. Her plot, however, failed, and 
Cyrus retired to his government of Western Asia, 
with the view of accomplishing, by the aid of Greek 
mercenaries, what he had not been able to execute 
by the silent dagger. He had, however, to act with 
much circumspection, as his brother, naturally 
doubting him, had sent his satrap, the crafty Tissa- 
phernes, to watch his movements. With the view, 
therefore, of the better cloaking his designs, Cyrus 
picked a quarrel with Tissaphernes, and professed that 
he meant to occupy his troops with an attack either 
on him or on the Pisidians. Having thus thrown 
Tissaphernes off his guard, he urged as rapidly as 
possible his real plans; and with about 13,000 
Greeks, and 100,000 native troops, commenced his 
march against his brother's capital, in spite of the 
alarm his Greek contingent pretended to feel, when 
at length they learned his real object. Indeed, for 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 57 

a time even Persian gold seems to have lost its 
wonted influence, these courageous patriots having 
at first proposed to disband and to leave their bene- 
factor to his fate. 

Marching, as it would seem, by the Pylae Cilicise, 
Cyrus, in twenty-nine days from Tarsus, reached 
Thapsacus, at which place he at once forded the 
Euphrates ; and thence, pushing forwards, at the rate 
of about fourteen miles a day, in thirty-three days 
more arrived within 120 miles of Babylon, without 
encountering any enemy. As is so often the case, 
want of resistance begat want of care, the march 
became negligent, the men piled their arms on 
wagons or beasts of burden, and Cyrus himself ex- 
changed his horse for a chariot. All of a sudden, a 
single horseman at great speed announced the im- 
mediate presence of the Great King and of his whole 
army ; but, as three hours elapsed before the combat 
of Cunaxa (b.c. 401) commenced, there was time 
enough, had Cyrus known anything of military 
tactics, to have so disposed his army, as possibly to 
have changed the fortune of the day. As it was, he 
did little more than arrest the confusion into which 
his army was at first thrown by this unexpected in- 
telligence. The battle that ensued was clearly very 
one-sided, as the army of Artaxerxes far outnumbered 
that of his brother; moreover, his cavalry was 
greatly in excess of those of Cyrus. On the other 
hand, his scythed chariots, though specially ordered 
to resist the Greeks, fled at their first onslaught, and 
in their flight, damaged their friends more than their 



58 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

foes. The actual battle occupied but a short time, 
ending as is well known, in the complete defeat and 
death of Cyrus, his cause having been greatly in- 
jured by the impetuosity of the Greeks, who, like 
the Highlanders of 1745-6, rushed madly in the 
pursuit, unheeding what necessarily followed, the 
outflanking of Cyrus himself by the portion of the 
army under the immediate command of Artaxerxes. 
The two brothers (it is said) once so nearly met, that 
Cyrus with his javelin struck Artaxerxes from his horse. 
With the death of Cyrus, the war, which was 
really a mere quarrel between the two brothers, came 
to an end. Nor, indeed, but for the celebrated re- 
treat of the Greeks to the shores of the Black Sea, 
and Xenophon's account of it, would it have any 
special interest : combined, however, with the no- 
torious fact that this mere handful of Greeks had, 
during the battle, done almost all the fighting, the 
story of this retreat produced effects little, at the 
time, anticipated, in the after history of the East 
and West. So far as Persia was concerned, it is true 
that, by the victory at Cunaxa, a dangerous rebel 
had been crushed ; but this success was dearly won, 
as it substituted for the brave and energetic Cyrus, 
the weak and effeminate Artaxerxes ; and still more 
so, as it made known to the Western Greeks, how 
easily the heart of Persia could be reached, by a 
small and resolute force, if well led. If the small 
army originally commanded by Clearchus, was able 
to set at nought the daily assaults of a force thirty 
or forty times their number, Greeks and Persians 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 59 

must alike have felt that the conquest of the whole 
Persian empire was no impossible feat of arms. It 
is more than probable that sober reflections on the 
course of this war suggested to the genius of such a 
man as Alexander the certainty of his ultimate suc- 
cess, in the great war in which, seventy years later, 
he engaged. 

Previously to the safe return of the " Ten thou- 
sand," the Greeks fancied the district between the 
Black and Caspian Seas and the Persian Gulf, a 
single dominion united under the firm grasp of the 
reigning monarch of Persia. They now learnt that 
between Mesopotamia and Trebizond, were wild and 
brave tribes of mountaineers, whom Persian gold 
sometimes, indeed, induced to enter her service, but 
who accepted or rejected her offers as suited their 
own purposes. Through these wild tribes (well 
represented even at this day by the dwellers in the 
mountain gorges of Kurdistan), the " Retreat " was 
one continuous battle; yet, on their review at 
Cerasus whence Lucullus, B.C. 74, sent the first 
cherries to Rome, their little army had not lost, 
from all causes, one-fourth of the number who had 
faced the Persian myriads on the afternoon of 
Cunaxa. 

The forty-six years' reign of Artaxerxes is chiefly 
memorable for the suicidal struggles between the 
leading states of Greece, for the submission of them 
all in turn to the influence of Persian gold, and for 
their general acceptance of the Great King as the 
arbiter in their quarrels. The same period is illus- 



60 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

trated by the wars with Egypt, Cyprus, and the 
mountaineers of the Taurus, and for the rise of many 
men of distinguished abilities and little character, 
such as Agesilaus, Conon, Chabrias, and Iphicrates. 
These men it is difficult to estimate more highly than 
as brilliant partizan leaders, their patriotism being 
as accidental as the terms on which they fought for 
republic or king. The immediate consequence of 
Cunaxa, was first a war between Persia and Sparta, 
chiefly on the ground that that republic had supplied 
Cyrus the Younger with his best troops; and se- 
condly, a six years' struggle between the Greeks and 
the satraps of Lydia and Phrygia (b.c. 399-394), in 
which Agesilaus proved himself the foremost man 
of his time, alike as a general and as a diplomatist. 
Indeed, had he been able to retain his command a 
little longer, it is probable that he would have cleared 
all Asia Minor of Persians. Here, however, Persian 
gold turned the balance (thirty thousand " archers," 
/. e. darics, were, as he said, his real foes), and Argos, 
Athens, Thebes, and Corinth, gladly accepted bribes 
to join in a common league against Sparta. Then 
we find the Athenian Conon in alliance with Phar- 
nabazus, recovering for Athens her lost naval su- 
premacy, and firoh ! pudor, a Persian fleet in Greek 
waters, in alliance with Athens ! nay, as if this were 
not enough, the actual rebuilding of her Long Walls 
by the aid of Persian money ! The reply of Sparta 
was a fresh negotiation with the Great King, ending 
in the so-called " Peace of Antalkidas " (b.c. 387), 
a fact truly characterized by Professor Rawlinson, as 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 6l 

"a mandate from the Court of Susa, to which obe- 
dience was required." The advantage to Persia 
was, that the Greeks were, for the time, interdicted 
from getting up provincial insurrections, while she 
herself crushed the Cypriotes, who had risen under 
Evagoras (b.c. 380). This peace further enabled 
Artaxerxes to attack the Cadusii, and to avail him- 
self of Athenian soldiers under Iphicrates, for a fresh 
descent upon Egypt. Yet neither the Cadusian, nor 
the Egyptian war produced any laurels for the Per- 
sians, the more so, that in the latter case, the Greek 
and Persian generals came to loggerheads. In a 
subsequent revolt of the satraps of Asia Minor and 
Phoenicia, we find Agesilaus as general, and the 
Athenian Chabrias as admiral, commanding the 
Egyptian forces in an attack on Syria; but their suc- 
cess, otherwise not doubtful, was checked by dis- 
putes in Egypt. 

About B.C. 360-359, Artaxerxes died, it is said at 
the advanced age of 94 years, and after a series of 
assassinations, was succeeded by Artaxerxes III. 
(Ochus), who, in a reign of more than twenty years, 
marked by deeds of singular atrocity, restored in 
some measure the position of Persia as a considera- 
ble military monarchy : the chronology of this period 
is difficult to unravel, and we have no details of the 
events in the early part of his reign : there is, how- 
ever, no doubt that Ochus early contemplated the 
reduction of Egypt, which had been for many years 
in a state of chronic rebellion. 

In all the wars of this period, we find Greeks 



62 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

fighting on either, indeed, not unfrequently on both 
sides ; thus in the reduction of Cyprus, Evagoras, 
the son of the celebrated Graeco-Cyprian king of the 
same name, commanded in conjunction with the 
Athenian Phocion, 8000 Greek mercenaries, for the 
enslavement of his own island and people. In the 
first attack on Egypt, Artaxerxes was utterly de- 
feated by the king Nectanebo, aided by Diophantus 
of Athens and Lamius of Sparta ; the natural result 
being that Cyprus and Phoenicia both took up arms 
against him and shortly after declared their inde- 
pendence. Not long afterwards, however, Idrieus 
the Carian and Evagoras reduced Cyprus, while the 
Rhodian Mentor, whom Nectanebo had sent to the 
help of the king of Sidon, drove the Persians out 
of Syria, though but for a brief time. 

Ochus soon after advanced against Sidon, with a 
large army, and having butchered 600 of the in- 
habitants, who came out to make terms with him, 
approached the city, with the intention of investing 
it. It is said that the Sidonians, perceiving further 
resistance hopeless, then retired each to his own 
house, and setting it on fire, left nothing but its 
ashes for the Persian invaders : these, however, 
fetched a considerable sum, the purchasers hoping 
to recover from the ruins a large quantity of gold 
and silver. On the destruction of Sidon, Mentor 
readily transferred himself and his Greek mercena- 
ries to Artaxerxes, and took the chief command of 
the Greek contingents, in the second expedition of 
Ochus against Egypt. The chief general of the 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 63 

Persians was Bagoas, an eunuch. It might have been 
supposed that as Nectanebo had the advantage of a 
country intersected with canals, with many strong- 
holds, held by nearly 20,000 more Greeks, he would 
have made a prolonged resistance. Without, how- 
ever, making one firm stand anywhere, he fell back 
on Memphis, leaving his garrisons, half Greek and 
half Egyptian, to be cajoled or slaughtered, as hap- 
pened to suit the Persians; nay more, on the ap- 
proach of Ochus to Memphis, he fled precipitately 
southwards into Ethiopia. Ochus then re-enacted 
the scenes attributed to Cambyses ; but with a blood- 
thirstiness and cruelty his own, and having com- 
pletely crushed out the last seeds of rebellion, re- 
turned to Susa, with an enormous booty. Bagoas 
remained till the death of Ochus the chief adminis- 
trator of the internal affairs of the empire ; while 
Mentor, on the other hand, received and secured the 
complete command of the Asiatic sea-board. Hence 
the last years of the reign of Ochus were peaceful 
and prosperous. 

Only one other event in the life of the successor 
of Ochus (who was poisoned by Bagoas in B.C. 338) 
is noteworthy, viz., the intervention on the part of 
Persia with the affairs on the mainland of Greece, 
which may, in some degree, have led to the action 
of Alexander a few years later. In this it would 
seem that the Persians aided the people of Perinthus 
so effectually, that Philip was compelled to raise its 
siege. 

On the murder of Ochus, his son Arses for a brief 



64 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

period occupied the throne ; but when Bagoas found 
he had some idea of ruling for himself, he put him 
and all his children to the sword, raising to the 
throne his personal friend, Darius Codomannus, the 
last native monarch of the Achsemenian dynasty. 
Of the previous history of this Darius little is known, 
and there is some doubt even whether he was of the 
blood-royal. But I may remark, as a curious coin- 
cidence, that Alexander the Great and the last Da- 
rius came to their respective thrones nearly at the 
same time (b.c. 336); the latter having been pro- 
claimed only a few weeks earlier ; but I do not think 
there is any evidence to connect Darius with the 
murder of Philip, even though Amyntas (one of the 
conspirators) was well received at the Persian Court, 
and Bagoas, had he had the chance, would proba- 
bly not have been averse to such a deed. 

For the great war which so soon followed, it is 
clear that Darius was ill-prepared; and he may 
have reasonably doubted its immediate commence- 
ment (though, before his death, Philip had been 
elected generalissimo of the Greeks), owing to the 
youth of Alexander. Yet observing eyes must have 
perceived that Alexander had shown, even in his 
earliest campaigns, abilities so remarkable as to offer 
a bright augury for his future successes. Moreover, 
Darius as manifestly lacked energy ; for had he but 
put himself at the head of the disaffected populations 
of Greece and Asia Minor, or taken into his pay 
some of the different states who cursed the memory 
of Philip, and hated the growing ascendency of Ma- 



HISTORY OF* PERSIA. 6], 

cedonia, Alexander would have found arrayed against 
him a host, it would have cost him dearly in blood 
and treasure to have overcome. When, however, 
Darius did at length learn the real character of his 
youthful opponent, he at once bestirred himself, re- 
inforced the satraps of Asia Minor with his best 
troops, and ordered extensive levies of mercenaries. 
To Memnon, the brother of Mentor, a man of great 
knowledge and ability, he gave the command of the 
Hellespont and rank of a satrap, at the same time 
providing him with an efficient force of Greek 
troops. 

But though Memnon had at first some slight suc- 
cesses, the supineness and over-credulity of the sa- 
traps with whom he was associated, rendered these 
advantages a loss rather than a gain in that they in- 
duced the Persians to under-rate the proposed inva- 
sion of Alexander : hence, though they had a fleet 
at least more than twice as numerous as that of Alex- 
ander, they allowed the Macedonian king, unre- 
sisted, to advance into Mysia with 30,000 foot and 
from 4000 to 5000 horse. Nor was this all : con- 
trary to the sensible advice of Mentor that they 
should fall back and lay waste the country in front 
of the Macedonians, they resolved as soon as possi- 
ble to fight a pitched battle, a course obviously un- 
wise, though it is at the same time probable that the 
rapidity of Alexander would have disconcerted even 
his sagacious plans. Having determined on fight- 
ing, the Persian leaders selected for their first battle 
ground the slopes on the side of the small stream 

E 



66 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

called Graneikus, which flows down into the Pro- 
pontis, from the northern side of Mount Ida, a po- 
sition judiciously chosen, and not unlike that of the 
Russians at the Alma. 

As soon as Alexander came up, he, against the 
advice of Parmenio, gave immediate orders to cross 
the river and to attack the Persians who were in 
battle array on the other side, an attack which suc- 
ceeded chiefly from its audacity, for Alexander's 
troops met with serious difficulties, the stream, 
though generally fordable, having here and there 
deep holes and gullies. The battle itself was at first 
hotly contested, and on the right Amyntas and 
Ptolemy were driven into the river by Memnon ; 
the personal courage, however, of Alexander, re- 
stored the day in this part, while elsewhere the 
resistance was less stubborn. The Greek mercena- 
ries it would seem, fought with desperation, as men 
who had halters round their necks, and it needed 
the full strength of the long spears of the Mace- 
donian phalanx to force these gallant fellows from 
the positions they had taken up. The loss recorded 
on each side, of more than 22,000 Persians against 
only 115 Greeks, would seem incredible, yet his- 
torians are agreed as to this fact : we may, therefore, 
suppose that, as the writers of the campaigns of 
Alexander were themselves, for the most part, Mace- 
donians, they only recorded the deaths of their own 
tribe, the "companions," or body-guard, of Alex- 
ander himself. Be this, however, as it may, the 
Graneikus was to the Macedonians a complete vie- 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 67 

tory, and to the Persians a defeat peculiarly crushing, 
from the large number of officers of high rank who 
perished in it. It also practically threw open the 
whole of Western Asia Minor to the invading army, 
the few sieges that subsequently took place being of 
comparatively little importance : in fact, no other 
great force could be collected by Darius, till he con- 
fronted Alexander for the second time, twelve 
months afterwards, on the memorable ground of 
Issus. At Gordium, the capital of Phrygia, Alex- 
ander gave his troops, for the first time, a few 
months of rest ; but, early in the following spring, 
he advanced again, having heard of the death of 
Memnon, which, at the same time, disconcerted the 
plans of Darius. Had Memnon lived, there is little 
doubt that Alexander would have been attacked in 
the rear. 

Darius now resolved, against the advice of Amyn- 
tas, again to meet his foe in the open field, and to 
fight a second general action, with the certainty, as 
he believed, of arresting his further progress. It is 
remarkable, that, in carrying out this intention, he 
actually advanced to the west of Alexander's real 
position, by passing through an upper defile of the 
Cilician mountain chain ; and was thus able to fall 
on the rear of the Greeks, and to massacre all the 
wounded then in hospital. His success was, how- 
ever, brief, for Alexander returned at once, and the 
two armies met in the narrow gorge of Issus, where 
even the comparatively small force of Alexander 
could not be wholly engaged. Arrian remarks that 



68 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

" God had declared himself on the Grecian side by 
putting it into the heart of Darius to execute such a 
movement" — indeed, it is clear enough that, if 
there was not room for the Greeks, any use Darius 
could make of his vast host would be practically in- 
considerable. And so the event proved. Into the 
details of the great battle that followed I cannot 
enter here ; suffice it, that Alexander was completely 
victorious, and that Darius fled from the field, 
leaving his wife, mother, and all his baggage, at the 
disposal of the conqueror. Here, as at the Granei- 
kus, with the exception of a body of Persian horse, 
the Greek mercenaries alone made any real resistance 
to the Macedonians. The loss of the battle was 
mainly due to the fact, that the Macedonians were 
themselves unquestionably superior to the Greek 
levies on the king's side. Yet these men fought 
bravely, and, availing themselves of the broken 
ground, succeeded at first in throwing even the 
phalanx into some confusion. 

But, though the conflict of Issus was a crushing 
victory, it did not place Persia at the feet of Alex- 
ander ; there needed yet another battle in the open 
plains, where the Persian ruler could fully employ 
every arm of his forces, to show how incomparably 
superior a small Greek force, ably led, was to the 
mightiest host the East could bring together. Its 
real importance was, that in it Alexander conquered 
not only the troops of Darius, but those also of 
Southern Greece. Hence the implacable enmity to 
him of the republican parties, many of whose leaders 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 69 

were present. Nor, indeed, were the survivors 
wholly dispirited by the event. Thus Agis, king of 
Sparta, collected 8000 of them, and it cost Antipater 
a bloody battle ere he was finally victorious. Certain 
it is that after the battle of Issus, with the exception 
of his detaching Parmenio to secure the treasury at 
Damascus, Alexander did apparently little in the way 
of following up his victory; indeed, he would seem, 
at first sight, to have turned aside to pick up very 
inferior game by a march through Syria, a siege of 
Tyre, Joppa and Gaza, and a descent into Egypt. 
But the general motive of Alexander's actions cannot 
be mistaken. No one better than he knew the con- 
stant tactics of Persia during the previous century, 
or how far the judicious use of Persian gold might 
avail to arrest his advance: hence, he must have 
seen that Tyre unreduced was a thorn in his side; 
and, further, that the fall of Tyre would involve 
that of Egypt. These two places once secured, the 
paralyzing of his enemies in Greece was certain, de- 
pendent as they were on the aid of a Tyrian fleet. 
Thus, though the battle of Issus was fought in No- 
vember B.C. 333, Alexander devoted fully twenty 
months to the reduction of Phoenicia, the sieges of 
Tyre and Gaza,* the occupation of Egypt and the 

* It was after the siege of Gaza that Alexander paid the visit to 
Jerusalem about which there has been so much discussion. Yet 
such a journey and his acts there agree faithfully with his usual 
practices elsewhere. A sacrifice in the temple according to the 
Jewish rites was only one other form of his invariable habit of 
" paying the highest reverence to the gods of every nation." Alex- 
ander did not, however, for this reason, adopt Judaism, as Bona- 



yo HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

visit to the oasis and temple of Jupiter Ammon. 
The wisdom of this course is, indeed, self-evident. 
By depriving Persia of Phoenicia and Egypt (her 
only outlets to the sea), Alexander effectually stopped 
that communication with Greece, which had proved 
so beneficial to Persian and Greek alike, and had no 
longer to fear the intervention of the Persian 
"Archers," which had so often before arrested, or 
modified successful and victorious campaigns. 

Before, however, the final close of the drama, two 
ineffectual proposals for peace were made by Darius 
to Alexander, but rejected by the haughty conquer- 
or. If Darius would sue in person, the Greek 
invader declared he would be received with due re- 
spect ; but the submission must be absolute, and 
Alexander must be recognized as king of the whole 
of Asia. Need we wonder that, even in his greatest 
extremity, the Persian king declined terms he must 
have felt personally humiliating ? Both sides, there- 
fore, determine to renew the conflict ; and here, at 
least, Darius neglected nothing that could place 
troops of acknowledged inferiority on something like 
an equality with their skilled assailants. In pre- 
paring for a struggle, which he must have known 
would be the final one, Darius collected his troops 
from all, even the remotest provinces, of his empire. 
Twenty-five nations obeyed his call to arms, and, 
besides the usual cavalry, infantry, and chariots, ele- 

parte is said to have adopted Islam to please the Turks or Arabs. 
Moreover he probably, at first, intended to chastise the Jews for 
their sympathies with the Persians. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 7 1 

phants were, it is said, for the first time in Western 
Asia, arrayed in the battle-field. 

Alexander having wintered in Syria, set forward 
through the plains of Mesopotamia, and crossing the 
Tigris unopposed, some thirty or forty miles above 
Nineveh, came first into collision with Darius (in 
Oct. b. c. 331) near the village of Gaugamela, around 
which a fierce and obstinate battle was fought.* 
The story goes, that, on this occasion, Alexander 
was so near Darius that he struck to the ground his 
charioteer with a blow from his javelin. A report 
naturally spread that Darius himself had fallen ; but 
the fact was, that the Persian monarch having left 
his baggage at Arbela fell back there, perhaps in the 
hope of renewing the battle: he was not, however, 
more successful here, and though the Syrian satrap, 
Maz»us, made a firm stand, the day was soon lost, 
and what remained of the Persian host hurriedly re- 
crossed the Zab, after a loss from all accounts pro- 
digious. The personal conduct of Darius cannot be 
greatly blamed, unless we accept as literally true the 
words of Arrian, " fearful as he was beforehand, he 
was the first to fly, ' ' but this is not probable ; as 
Professor Rawlinson observes, "Arbela was not, 
like Issus, won by men fighting ; it was the leaders' 
victory rather than the soldiers." Alexander's 
diagonal advance, thus breaking the Persian line, 
and the prompt occupation by some of his best 

* The battle is generally named from Arbela (Erbil), which is 
more than 20 miles South-west from Gaugamela, where it had 
commenced. 



72 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

cavalry and a portion of the phalanx of the space 
thus left open, decided the conflict. A complete 
rout followed, as a matter of course, and Darius 
fled, not as taking the initiative, because he saw the 
day was irretrievably lost. 

The battle of Arbela closes the history of Persia 
as a distinct and separate empire ; and one, too, not 
to be again revived for more than 500 years: from 
this time, the crown of Cyrus passed into the hands 
of Greek or Parthian rulers, and the native line of 
sovereigns, if not altogether suppressed, reigned over 
only the small province of Persis, as dependents first 
on the Greek empire of the Seleucidse, and subse- 
quently on that of the more oppressive and hostile 
Arsacidse. The fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy was 
as complete as possible. "Behold, an he-goat came 
from the west on the face of the whole earth, and 
touched not the ground : and the goat had a notable 
horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram 
that had two horns, which I had seen standing be- 
fore the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his 
power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, 
and he was moved with choler against him, and 
smote the ram, and brake his two horns : and there 
was no power in the ram to stand before him, but 
he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon 
him : and there was none that could deliver the ram 
out of his hand."* 

* Dan. viii. 5-7. 



CHAPTER III. 

Daniel — Darius the Mede. 

But any account of Persia would be more than 
incomplete which should pass over the remarkable 
story of Daniel the Jew, who is more, perhaps, than 
any one else connected with the prophecies of pro- 
fane history and of a coming Messiah. I shall, there- 
fore, state here, but, of necessity, briefly, what is 
known of Daniel, taking the narrative in the Bible 
as literally true; nor shall I discuss the question, 
how, if some of his prophecies are accepted as ful- 
filled, the obvious meaning of others can be ex- 
plained away either as the writing of a contemporary, 
but of an outsider, or as stories craftily made up 
after the events they refer to. The charm, indeed, 
of the book of Daniel is that it admits of no com- 
promise, but must be true as a whole or false as a whole. 
" The dream is certain, and the interpretation 
thereof sure," is, to my mind, a statement as definite 
and as satisfactory, as our Lord's assertion that His 
own words are true. 

The first we hear of Daniel is his statement* that 
(on Nebuchadnezzar's first expedition against Jeru- 
salem) he was selected as one of the "children in 
whom was no blemish, but well-favored and skillful 

* Dan. i. 4. 

73 



74 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

in all wisdom," to be brought up at the king's ex- 
pense, and taught the learning and wisdom of the 
Chaldees," during a period of three years. Daniel 
then tells how he and they alike rejected the king's 
proffered nourishment of meat and wine, lest they 
should be defiled by eating what had been offered 
to idols ; and yet, how, though fed only on pulse 
and water, at the end of ten days "their coun- 
tenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all 
the children who did eat the portion of the king's 
meat."* After a while, we learn that they were 
brought before the king, and that "in all matters 
of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired 
of them, he found them ten times better than all the 
magicians and astrologers that were in his realm, "f 
The first direct proof that God was with Daniel 
occurred in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, B. 
c. 603. On one night we learn that the king 
dreamed a dream, which, on awakening, he could 
not recall, and when the Chaldean soothsayers failed 
to tell him either what it was or how it was to be in- 
terpreted, Daniel not only declared what he had 
dreamed, but explained the meaning of it. J The 
rage of the king against his wise men is character- 
istic of a man who detected at once that the sooth- 
sayers were shuffling. " I know of a certainty," he 
says, "that ye would gain time, because ye see that 
the thing is gone from me " — but, "if ye have not 
made known unto, me the dream, there is but one 
decree for you ; for ye have prepared lying and cor- 

* Dan. i. 15. f Dan. i. 20. J Dan. ii. 29. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 75 

rupt words to speak before me, till the time be 
changed."* The point is the distinct assertion of 
Daniel that his interpretation was not due to any- 
personal superiority of his own over the other wise 
men: "As for me," says he, "this secret is not 
revealed to me for any wisdom that I may have more 
than any living, but for their sakes that shall make 
known the interpretation to the king, and that thou 
mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. ' ' f The 
lesson, indeed, then read to the king, is the same as 
that given centuries before to the builders of the 
tower of Babel, and, subsequently, again, to the 
king himself, when, not long after, he set up the 
great image in the plain of Dura, viz., that such 
works, great as they were, were but a feeble exposi- 
tion of even his views of universal empire. Ne- 
buchadnezzar's reply, "Of a truth it is that your 
God is a god of gods, and a lord of kings, and a 
revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst ^reveal this 
secret,"| is the" honest language of a heathen, 
touched, as well he might be, by the remarkable re- 
velation he had just heard, and ready, therefore, to 
acknowledge Daniel's God to be the greatest god he 
had yet heard of. 

The result to Daniel was that he was made " ruler 
over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of 
the governors over all the wise men of Babylon, "§ 
and, further, that he was permitted to associate with 
him the three young Jews, his early companions in 
exile, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Such a 

* Dan. ii. 9. f Dan. ii. 30. J Dan. ii. 47. § Dan. ii. 48. 



76 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

position was one peculiarly exposed to the envy and 
the hatred of the native men of rank ; hence every 
unworthy scheme on their part to bring Daniel and 
his friends into disfavor with the king, who, they 
thought, perhaps not without some reason, had been 
Unduly hasty in the promotion he had given to one 
of his slaves. The trial soon came in the form of a 
"burning fiery furnace,"* from which, it maybe, 
that Daniel's exalted rank alone preserved him ; the 
course of events being just as might have been ex- 
pected, from the greatest of Oriental despots, con- 
vinced against his will, and, therefore, longing to 
silence, as he hoped for ever, the man who, by su- 
perhuman means, had thwarted his purpose. He 
would have been less than Nebuchadnezzar had he 
acted otherwise ; and his so acting is, as far as it 
goes, an evidence of the truth of the whole narra- 
tive. Indeed, his first and prompt acknowledgment 
of the power that had chastened him, is in perfect 
unity with his character. The God of the whole 
world was still in his. eyes but the " God of Sha- 
drach, Meshach, and Abed-nego;" thus, in His 
favor, the decree goes forth, that whoever shall speak 
amiss of Him " shall be cut in pieces and their 
houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no 
other God that can deliver after this sort."f The 
royal heathen could not as yet discern the whole 
truth ; and it needed further manifestations of the 
Divine power, to enforce his assent to the fact, that 

*Dan. iii. n. fDan. iii. 29. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 77 

the Bel and Nebo in whom he had trusted, were but 
gods made by human hands. 

The account of Nebuchadnezzar's next trial is told 
in his own words. " I, Nebuchadnezzar," says he, 
" was at rest in mine house, and nourishing in my 
palace."* And thus, in the height of his majesty, 
he forgot God. He dreamed, as before, a dream of 
a great tree, whose branches extended to heaven, but 
which was cut down till there was nothing left "but 
the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band 
of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field, "f 
Of this dream, Daniel was again the expositor, and 
prophesied how Nebuchadnezzar should, for a time, 
lose his reason, and be numbered with "the beasts 
that perish." "And all this," it is added, "came 
upon king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve 
months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of 
Babylon, and the king spake and said, ' Is not this 
great Babylon that I have built for the house of my 
kingdom, by the might of my power and for the 
honor of my majesty? ' "J 

But the punishment of his pride was near at hand, 
the narrative in the Bible adding, " While the word 
was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from 
heaven saying, O king, Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it 
is spoken ; the kingdom is departed from thee; they 
shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be 
with the beasts of the field : they shall make thee 
eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over 
thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in 

* Dan. iv. 4. f Dan. iv. 15. J Dan. iv. 28. 



78 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever 
He will."* Yet was the judgment tempered, as are 
all God's judgments, with mercy, the king himself 
stating, "At the end of the days, I, king Nebuchad- 
nezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine 
understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the 
Most High, and praised and honored Him that 
liveth for ever .... and at the same time my reason 
returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, 
mine honor and brightness returned unto me .... 
and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent 
majesty was added unto me."f 

It would have been of surpassing interest, could 
we, in this instance, have found a native record run- 
ning parallel with the statement in the Bible ; and, 
at one time, it was thought by M. Oppert, that he 
had detected an allusion to it on the great Cuneiform 
inscription of Nebuchadnezzar in the India Office. 
We fear, however, that this idea has not been con- 
firmed, though there is a break in the general sense, 
and some lines not yet satisfactorily made out. The 

* Dan. iv. 31. 

f Dan. iv. 34. It has been supposed that Nebuchadnezzar's ill- 
ness was a form of a rare disease called " lycanthropy," in which 
the patient retains his consciousness, but fancies himself an animal. 
It is said to have been first noticed by Marcellus, a Greek physician 
of the fourth century. Many cases have been recorded in which 
the inner consciousness still remains, and, with it, the power of 
prayer. Dr. Browne says that the "idea of personal identity is 

but rarely enfeebled, and never is extinguished I have 

seen a man, declaring himself the Saviour or St. Paul, sign himself 
yames Thomson, and attend public worship as regularly as if the 
notion of divinity had never entered his head." 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 79 

account, therefore, in Daniel, is at present the only- 
record of the king's illness and recovery. 

From the death of Nebuchadnezzar, about three 
or four years after his recovery, we hear no more of 
Daniel for twenty-three years; but Jeremiah's pro- 
phecies (histories ?) fill up the intervening time, and 
confirm what we know from other sources, of the 
descent of the kingly rule to Nebuchadnezzar's im- 
mediate descendants.* 

In his fifth chapter Daniel passes on at once to 
Belshazzar, and to the memorable night during which 
the army of Cyrus silently entered Babylon through 
the unguarded river-gates. Of himself, he simply 
adds, "This Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, 
and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian ;"f in other 
words, he survived the whole seventy years of the 
captivity, while we know further also from himself, 
that after " Darius the Mede " became governor of 
Babylon, he was at Shushan (Susa), doing "the 
king's business,"! perhaps employed by him on the 
great division of the empire into 120 satrapies, and 
thereby in his old age, again incurring the bitter 
enmity of the "princes of the empire," followed by 

* Jerem. xxvii. 7 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20. 

-j- Dan. vi. 28. 

J The visit to Susa is dated by Daniel " in the third year of 
Belshazzar," that is, at Jbe end of the third unfinished year, a mode 
of reference not uncommon. The so-called tomb of Daniel, of 
which Mr. Loftus has given a drawing, below the ruins of the 
ancient city (though itself a mediaeval structure), attests the tradi- 
tion of the burial of the prophet in that neighborhood, and is still 
the yearly resort of hundreds of Jewish pilgrims. 



80 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

their attempt at his destruction in the den of lions. 
In bringing to a close this short notice of Daniel, I 
think it may be useful to give a list of his visions, 
dreams, and prophecies, with the interpretation of 
them usually accepted ; this list, however, is intended 
to be perfectly general, with no reference to any of 
the special theories of prophecy, upheld or rejected 
by such writers as Maitland, Faber, or Elliott. 

Thus :— 

i. In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar,* B.C. 
603 : The explanation of the royal dream of the 
image represented the Four Great Monarchies. 

a. The golden head — the Assyrio-Babylonian 

empire. 

b. The silver breast and arms — the Medo-Per- 

sian empire. 

c. The brazen belly and thighs — the Macedo- 

nian rule in Asia, Egypt, and Syria. 

d. The legs of iron, and ten toes of iron and 

clay — the power of Rome, a mixture of 
strength and weakness. 

e. The stone cut without hands out of the living 

rock, which destroyed the image — the 
spiritual kingdom of our Saviour. 

2. In the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, but of uncer- 
tain date : — The interpretation of the king's second 
dream, and its assertion that he will lose for a time, 
but afterwards recover, his reason. f 

3, In the first year of Belshazzar, B.C. 540 :J — 

* Dan. xi. 32. "}" Dan. iv. 25. J Dan. vii. 2. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA, 51 

The dream of the four beasts (generally held to re- 
present four empires), with the judgment of the 
"Ancient of Days" on the fourth beast, and the 
announcement of the coming kingdom of "the Son 
of man." Like much of The Revelation of St. 
John, a portion of this prophecy may be as yet un- 
fulfilled : we have, however, only to wait in patience, 
and it will doubtless some day be as clear to us as 
the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. 

4. In the third year of Belshazzar, and, therefore, 
probably soon after the fall of Babylon, in B.C. 
538:* — A vision at Shushan, in which Daniel wit- 
nesses a combat between a ram and a he-goat (the 
admitted symbols of the Medo-Persian and Mace- 
donian empires). The ram has two horns, of which 
the higher "came up last."f — Alexander is clearly 
the "notable" horn of the he-goat, and the four 
chief kingdoms of his successors are indicated by 
the four horns which follow it. 

5. In the first year of Darius the Mede, B.C. 538- 
7 : A vision is seen by Daniel, but we do not know 
where : it is, however, of special interest, as he 
states, that having studied Jeremiah's prophecy of 

* Dan. viii. 3. 

f Just such a he-goat may be seen on the sculptures at Perse- 
polis with one " notable " horn between his eyes. I may further 
remark that in the third or Greek kingdom, the " little horn " 
comes from one of the four-fold divisions of the empire, which was 
exactly the case with Antiochus Epiphanes ; but in the fourth, or 
Roman empire, the " little horn came up among them" (ch. vii. 
9), and destroyed three of them. A difference so striking in the 
symbol, implies a corresponding difference in the thing typified. 
F 



82 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

the endurance of the Captivity for seventy years, 
" he set himself to seek God by fasting and prayer,"* 
obtaining from God a direct answer to his supplica- 
tions through the angel Gabriel f (or man of God), 
who announced the immediate commencement of 
the period, the fulfilment of which the same angel 
afterwards declared to Zacharias. This is the famous 
" prophecy of the seventy weeks " (or 490 years), 
to elapse from the re-building of the temple at Jeru- 
salem, to the completion of our Saviour's mission on 
earth. Supposing the commencing date to be (as 
suggested by Dr. W. Smith), that of the " final and 
effectual edict of Artaxerxes Longimanus, in B.C. 
457, exactly 490 years may be counted, to the death 
of our Saviour, in a.d. 33. The "seventy sevens " 
may be considered years, just as the word " Sab- 
bath, ' ' is often used for the Sabbatical year ; the 
whole phrase then meaning seventy cycles of Sab- 
batical years. J 

6. In the third year of Cyrus, B. c. 534 : — A vision 
on the banks of the Hiddekel or Tigris, with a strik- 
ing resemblance to that of St. John at Patmos.§ 
Much of it is obscure, as referring, possibly, to 
matters still long distant. 

* Dan. ix. 2. f Dan. ix. 21. 

\ The whole of Dan. xi. (in the first year of Darius the Mede) 
is occupied by prophetical details, some of them of remarkable 
minuteness, and in chap. xii. when Daniel asks, " How long shall 
it be to the end of these wonders?" he is told, "But thou, O 
Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time 
of the end." And again, " Go thy way, Daniel ; for the words are 
closed up and sealed, till the time of the end." 

§ Dan. x. 4. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 83 

In bringing to an end this short notice of Daniel, 
I ought, perhaps, to add, that doubts have been 
thrown on his story, because he does not himself 
describe the return from the Captivity. But it does 
not seem to have been part of Daniel's duty to write 
history, but simply to record the visions he saw and 
the prophecies he was told to proclaim. 

One of the results of the taking of Babylon by 
Cyrus was the appointment of a new governor of it, 
called by Daniel " Darius the Mede ;" and as there 
has been much discussion as to who he really was, it 
is worth while to look a little closely into his his- 
tory. Now Daniel, in the next verse to that in 
which he mentions the death of Belshazzar, says dis- 
tinctly, "And Darius the Median took the king- 
dom, being about threescore and two years old,"* 
a statement apparently at variance with the prophecy 
of Isaiah, which, indicating Cyrus as the conqueror 
of Babylon, does not mention any one else, and is 
so far in agreement with profane history. It is, 
however, quite clear that Daniel understands the 
kingdom as given to the Medes and Persians, and 
where "Darius the Mede" is mentioned two or 
three times subsequently, this is always as a personage 
enjoying sovereign rank in the province of Babylonia, 
even if not beyond it : in one place, indeed, his 
title is " Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of 
the Medes. ' ' This is all we learn of him from the 
Bible. 

Now I venture to think it not unlikely that this 

* Dan. v. 31. 



84 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Darius is really the same person as Astyages, the old 
king of Media, who, as we have seen, was dethroned 
by Cyrus at the commencement of his victorious 
career ; and my reason for thinking so is, that, as it 
was the custom of Cyrus to treat the monarchs he 
Vanquished with unusual magnanimity, there is no d 
priori reason why Astyages may not have survived 
the loss of his kingdom, just, as we know, was the 
case with Crcesus and Nabonidus. It might, too, 
have been good policy in Cyrus to gratify his Me- 
dian subjects by making a descendant of Cyaxares 
(Akhasveroth) viceroy of Babylon.* On this sup- 
position Darius would, naturally, have reigned there 
during the two years B.C. 538-536, during which 
Cyrus was completing his conquests; and further, 
these two years would naturally have been included 
in the nine assigned to Cyrus in the Babylonian 
annals. Again, if this were so, we can easily under- 
stand that he would have been, more than Cyrus, in 
constant intercourse with the Jews of the Captivity, 
who would naturally give him the title of king, and 
reckon the year of his death, B.C. 536, which was 
that of their own restoration, as the first year of 
Cyrus. 

Again, it is certain that this Darius, whoever he 
was, exercised a delegated authority ; for Gesenius 

* Thus in the Behistan inscription, we find Frawartish, a Me- 
dian, and Sitratachmes from Sagartia, claiming the throne as 
descendants of Cyaxares. " I am Xathrites of the race of Cyaxa- 
res." " I am king of Sagartia, of the race of Cyaxares." Beh^ 
Inscr. col. ii. p. 5, 14. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 85 

has shown that the word translated "took," does not 
mean "took of himself as by force of arms," but 
"received from another;" while, in Dan. ix. i, it is 
distinctly stated that he " was made king." Again, 
as the Darius, son of Hystaspes, in his inscription, is 
admitted to be an appellative name, there seems no 
reason why the same should not have been the case 
here, and the private name of " Darius the Mede," 
have been Astyages. Had Daniel asserted, that 
" Darius the Mede " reigned by his own authority, 
there would have been an apparent contradiction ; 
whereas what he does tell us is only something more 
than either Herodotus or Xenophon happen to have 
recorded. Lastly, Isaiah prophesies a joint attack 
on Babylon: "Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media,"* 
while in another place, he makes the Medes alone 
God's avengers :f moreover, Jeremiah, speaking of 
"an assembly of great nations from the North 
country,"| specifically names the Medes, in the 
words " The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the 
kings of the Medes. "§ We should, indeed, naturally 
have expected that the Medes would take a promi- 
nent part in the overthrow of Babylon, while they 
would, according to the usual custom of the East, be 
under their own kings or chiefs. 

Eusebius has preserved a statement (which we may 
take for what it is worth) from Megasthenes, to the 
effect that Nebuchadnezzar had himself told his peo- 
ple (perhaps after a dream), that " a Persian ruler 
will come, aided by your gods, and will bring slavery 

* Isa. xxxl. f Isa. xiii. 17. \ Jer. 1. 9. $ Jer. li. 11. 



86 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

upon you, whose accomplice shall be a Mede, the 
boast of Assyria;" and as Assyrian history shows 
that Babylon was often under the government of 
viceroys, the appointment of a Median to such an 
office in no way implies, as has been thought, the 
intervention, even for a short period, of a Median 
government. 

Now, taking all these facts into consideration, 
there seems no great difficulty in accounting for a 
" Darius the Mede " as the ruler of Babylon, even 
if the proposal to consider him the same as Astyages 
be thought too bold.* The interpretation of the 
writing on the wall, wherein the Persians alone are 
mentioned as the conquerors, with the immediate 
addition that the kingdom " is given to the Medes 
and the Persians," seems to be a simple statement 
of the whole case : while it is difficult to suppose 
that Daniel could have been ignorant of the preced- 
ing prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, or that he 
would have constructed a story directly at variance 
with the statements of the books he distinctly says 
he had studied. 

* The chief objection to the supposition that Astyages may have 
been " Darius the Mede" is that he would seem to be too old. 
But it is quite possible that he may have been ten years older than 
Daniel makes him ("about" 62 years), and Cyrus more than ten 
years younger when he defeated Astyages than his usually assumed 
age of 40. There is, indeed, no direct evidence of the age of 
Cyrus ; Dinon, it is true, makes him 70 years old at his death, but 
Herodotus implies he was younger at his overthrow of the 
Medes than is generally supposed. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Tomb of Cyrus — Inscriptions of Darius — Behist£n — V£n, &c. — 
Inscriptions of Xerxes — Artaxerxes, &c. — Persepolis — Istakhr — ■ 
Susa — Tomb of Darius, son of Hystaspes. 

Having now given a brief outline of the history 
of Ancient Persia, from its earliest period to the 
overthrow of the Achaemenian or native kings by 
the conquest of Alexander, I proceed to give some 
account of the principal monuments of the same race 
and period, attesting, as these do unmistakably, the 
grandeur of those who constructed them. With 
these monuments, I shall notice the Cuneiform in- 
scriptions connected with them, because their inter- 
pretation has thrown much light alike on the Bible 
and on profane history, and reconciled some diffi- 
culties that could not previously be cleared up. 
With this object, I take first the curious structure 
commonly called the "Tomb of Cyrus," the oldest 
certain relic of Ancient Persia, of which Mr. Morier 
was the first to give a full description, in which he 
has been followed by Sir Robert K. Porter and by 
Messrs. Flandin and Coste. 

This remarkable building stands in the middle of 
the plain of Murghab, on a site satisfactorily identi- 
fied with that of Pasargadse, the capital of Persia in 
the time of Cyrus, and is in form unlike any of the 
other royal tombs, or indeed any other known 

87 



88 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Persian work, while it fairly resembles what Aristo- 
bulus, who was sent by Alexander to restore it, calls 
" a house upon a pedestal." It is, in fact, a build- 
ing constructed of square blocks of white marble, 
enormous in size, and stands on a base of seven steps 
of different heights : its stone roof, with pediments 
at each end, gives it a striking resemblance to a 
Greek temple. Like a temple, too, it has no win- 
dows, but only a low narrow doorway at each end, 
leading into a cell, eleven feet long by seven feet 
high and broad, doubtless the chamber wherein 
Arrian says the golden coffin of Cyrus was originally 
placed. It had, however, been rifled before the visit 
of Aristobulus by Polymachus and others, a sacrilege 
so much resented by Alexander, that he ordered the 
chief perpetrator of it, though a Macedonian of high 
rank from Pella, to be put to death. Its present 
height above the ground is about thirty-six feet, and 
its base forms a parallelogram, forty-seven feet long 
by forty-three feet nine inches broad. Around this 
tomb, is a rectangular area, where there are still the 
shattered remains of several columnar shafts, por- 
tions, probably, of a colonnade or a court, which 
once surrounded the tomb itself. 

The first person to suggest that this structure was 
the tomb of Cyrus, was Mr. Morier; and his sugges- 
tion has been confirmed by the discovery of a bas- 
relief, carved on the side of a monolithic pillar, 
about fifteen feet high, which stands near the tomb, 
and is inscribed in the three forms of Cuneiform 
writing, with the words, "I am Cyrus, the king, the 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 89 

Achsemenian.' ' This relief, which is extremely curi- 
ous, represents a tall figure (nearly, indeed, the same 
height as the monolith is at present above the 
ground), in the form of a colossal winged man 
wearing an Egyptian head-dress. This figure, of 
which Ker Porter has given an excellent engraving, 
was at one time supposed to be a portrait of Cyrus : 
it is more probably the representation of a good 
genius. The same short inscription is repeated 
several times on other slabs in the neighborhood. 

The history of the first interpretation of this in- 
scription, as given by Prof. Heeren, is very interest- 
ing. A distinguished scholar, Dr. Grotefend, had 
been long trying to decipher the Cuneiform inscrip- 
tions, but had met with slender success, chiefly, no 
doubt, from the scarcity of materials then in Europe, 
with which to compare and test his conjectural 
alphabet. While so engaged, he met with a legend 
apparently in four words, and from the analogy of 
others he had received from Persepolis, was led to 
suspect the second word a name, and the third and 
fourth the titles of the person to whom the whole 
referred. A little while afterwards he obtained a 
copy of the French translation of Morier's travels, 
and there found, much to his surprise, the identical 
inscription with Morier's suggestion, that the place 
where it and other similar ones had been noticed, 
was no other than Pasargadse, and that the unique 
building above noticed was the tomb of Cyrus. 

Since then this inscription has been carefully 
studied by Professor Lassen and Sir H. C. Rawlin- 



90 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

son, and the former has published an able essay on 
it in the journal of the German Oriental Society. 
There is no doubt, therefore, as to the correctness 
of the interpretation. Mr. Fergusson has further 
remarked, that the negative evidence in favor of its 
being Cyrus' tomb, derived from its architectural 
style, is no less conclusive. It is, he thinks, a build- 
ing of the age of the Achgemenidse, and, certainly, a 
tomb ; and as everything around it belongs to Cyrus, 
it may fairly be presumed does this also ; agreeing, 
moreover, as it does faithfully, with Arrian's descrip- 
tion of the building Alexander ordered Aristobulus 
to restore. I will venture further to suggest that, as 
the building has so strong a resemblance to ordinary 
Greek structures, it is not impossible that what we 
now see is mainly the restoration of Aristobulus ; 
though, on the supposition that it was erected by 
Cyrus during his lifetime, it is equally possible that 
he employed Greek workmen, the more so, that, 
after his wars in Asia Minor, Greek artists might 
easily have been secured for Persian edifices. I 
ought to add that Onesicritus and Aristus of Salamis, 
have preserved, in the form of a Greek hexameter, a 
nearly accurate translation of the inscription above 
noticed, thus affording a strong presumption that 
this legend was known beyond the boundaries of 
Cyrus' own dominions.* 

* The following are the chief authorities on the subject of the 
tomb of Cyrus. Arrian, Exped. Alex, compared with Strab. xv. 
3, 7. Morier's Journ. pp. 144-6. Ker Porter, i. pp. 498-500. 
Rich, Journey to Persepolis, pp. 239-244. Fergusson, Palaces of 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 9 1 

We come next to the great monument of Behistan, 
(on some of the maps called Bisutun), the most 
valuable of all the Achsemenian remains. Behistan* 
is the name of a nearly perpendicular mountain near 
Kirmanshah, in Persia, which rises abruptly from 
the plain to the height of 1700 feet, and is, as Sir 
H. C. Rawlinson has remarked, singularly well 
adapted for the holy purposes of the early Persian 
tribes. It was known to the Greeks by the name of 
payiaravov bpog, a nd was, of course, said to have been 
sacred to Zeus. Sir H. C. Rawlinson further points 
out that the principal description in Diodorus, ex- 
tracted from Ctesias, is geographically clear, though 
we do not now discern the sculptures, said to repre- 
sent Semiramis and her hundred guards. All of 
importance now visible are the bas-reliefs of Darius 
and of the rebels he crushed, together with "nearly 
a thousand lines in Cuneiform characters. ' ' 

That great pains were taken to ensure the per- 

Nineveh and Persepolis, p. 214. Flandin and Coste, Voy. en 
Perse, p. 157. Texier's Mem. ii. PI. 82. Heeren, Asiatic Nations, 
vol. ii. p. 350. 

* The following notice of the monument at Behistan, is taken 
from the account published by its first interpreter, Sir Henry (then 
Major) Rawlinson, in the Journ. of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 
x. 1847. The portion of the translated inscriptions, quoted, is from 
the copy of them recently furnished by him to " Records of the 
Past," vol. i. pp. 111-115,1874. A handsomely executed volume 
has been lately published in St. Petersburg (1872), by M. C. Kos- 
sowicz, comprising all the Perso-cuneiform inscriptions, under the 
title " Inscriptiones Palaso-Persicse Achaemenidarum." To this 
work I am indebted for the plate forming the frontispiece of this 
volume, exhibiting, as it does, a new view of the rock of Behistan. 



92 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

manency of the monument, is clear from its position, 
at more than 300 feet above the plain, with an ascent 
to it so steep, that the engravers must have had a 
scaffold erected for them. Again, the mere prepara- 
tion of the surface of the rock for the inscription 
must have occupied months ; for wherever, from the 
unsoundness of the stone, it was difficult to give, it 
the necessary polish, other pieces have been inlaid, 
their fittings being so close, that a minute examina- 
tion is required to detect this artifice. Sir H. C. 
Rawlinson adds, " I cannot avoid noticing a very 
extraordinary device which has been employed, ap- 
parently to give a finish and durability to the writing 
.... that, after the engraving of the rock had been 
accomplished, a coating of silicious varnish has been 
laid on, to give a clearness of outline to each indi- 
vidual letter, and to protect the surface against the 
action of the elements. This varnish is of infinitely 
greater hardness than the limestone rock beneath it. 
It has been washed down in many places by the 
trickling water for three-and-twenty centuries, and 
it lies in flakes upon the foot ledge, like thin layers 
of lava. It adheres, in other portions of the tablet, to 
the broken surface, and still shows, with sufficient dis- 
tinctness, the forms of the characters, although the rock 
beneath is entirely honey-combed and destroyed." 
The reliefs on the rock are still but little injured 
by time, and represent a row of nine persons tied by 
the neck like slaves, approaching another personage 
of more majestic stature, who treads on a prostrate 
body. Of these presumed captives, three wear the 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 93 

flowing dress of the monarch, the rest being clad in 
tight, short tunics. Behind the king stand two war- 
riors, armed with the bow and spear. The general 
execution of the figures is inferior to that of the re- 
liefs at Persepolis; the king and his warriors are the 
best, while the conquered rebels are represented as 
diminutive in size. The Median robe and the Per- 
sian tunic occur alternately. The whole sculpture is 
manifestly a triumphal memorial, for tablets with 
the names of the persons referred to, are placed over 
the monarch and the captives so that there may be 
no mistake. The following is a specimen of the 
general form of these legends. Over the head of the 
king ' himself, we read: "I am Darius the king, the 
king of kings, the king of Persia, the great king of 
the provinces, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of 
Arsames, the Achsemenian. Says Darius, the king : 
My father was Hystaspes ; of Hystaspes, the father 
was Arsames ; of Arsames, the father was Ariyaram- 
nes; of Ariyaramnes, the father was Teispes; of 
Teispes, the father was Achsemenes. Says Darius 
the king: On that account we are called Achaeme- 
nians. From antiquity we have descended ; from 
antiquity those of our race have been kings. Says 
Darius the king : There are eight of my race who 
have been kings before me ; I am the ninth. For a 
very long time (or in a double line) we have been 
kings. Says Darius the king: By the grace of 
Ormazd I am king. Ormazd has granted to me the 
empire. Says Darius the king: These are the 
countries which belong to me: by the grace of 



94 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Ormazd I have become king of them ; Persia, Susi- 
ana, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt ; those which 
are of the sea, (J. e. the islands of the Mediterranean), 
Sparta and Ionia, Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, 
Parthia, Zarangia, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sog- 
diana, Gandara, the Sacse, the Sattagydes, Arachosia, 
and Mecia, in all twenty-three countries." 

On the previous state of his empire, Darius "speaks 
as follows: "Says Darius the king : This (is) what 
was done by me before I became king. He, who 
was named Cambyses, the son of Cyrus of our race, 
he was here king before me. There was of that 
Cambyses a brother, named Bardes; he was of the 
same father and mother as Cambyses : afterwards 
Cambyses slew this Bardes. When Cambyses slew 
Bardes, it was not known to the state that Bardes 
was killed : then Cambyses proceeded to Egypt. 
When Cambyses had gone to Egypt, the state be- 
came wicked ; then the lie became abounding in the 
land, both in Persia and in Media, and in the other 
provinces." 

Of the rebellion of the Pseudo-Bardes, or Gomates, 
he adds, " Afterwards, there was a certain man, a Ma- 
gian, called Gomates. ... To the state he thus falsely 
declared, I am Bardes, the son of Cyrus, the brother 
of Cambyses. Then the whole state became rebel- 
lious; from Cambyses it went over to him, both 
Persia and Media and the other provinces .... Says 
Darius the king : There was not a man, neither Per- 
sian nor Median, nor any one of our family, who 
could dispossess of the empire that Gomates the 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 95 

Magian. The state feared him exceedingly. He 
slew many people who had known the old Bardes ; 
for that reason he slew the people, ' lest they should 
recognize me, that I am not Bardes, the son of Cy- 
rus.' There was not any one bold enough to say 
aught against Gomates the Magian till I arrived. 
Then I prayed to Ormazd; Ormazd brought help 
unto me. On the tenth day of the month, Bagaza- 
dish, then it was, with my faithful men (or with a 
few men) I slew that Gomates, the Magian, and the 
chief men who were his followers. The fort, named 
Sictachotes, in the district of Media, named Nissea, 
there I slew him; I dispossessed him of the empire 
.... The empire that had been wrested from our 
race, that I recovered ; I established it in its place as 
in the days of old ; thus I did. The temples which 
Gomates the Magian had destroyed I rebuilt. I re- 
instituted for the state the sacred chants and (sacri- 
fical) worship, and confided them to the families 
which Gomates the Magian had deprived of those 

offices I labored that Gomates the Magian 

might not supersede our family." Sir H. C. Raw- 
linson thinks that an attitude of extreme abjectness 
has been given to this figure, to mark the difference 
of character between the Magian usurpation, and the 
partial and temporary disorders in the provinces. 
It appears, further, that the rebels who sprang up in 
Persia, claiming to be the son of Cyrus, took the title 
of "the king," while the provincial impostors are 
merely called kings of the localities where they re- 
belled. 



g6 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

The fifth figure is curious for the nature of the 
claim he set up, as a descendant of the famous early- 
monarch Cyaxares: " I am king of Sagartia, of the 
race of Cyaxares." The ninth is interesting from 
his title and dress, the legend over him, reading — 
"This is Sakuka, the Sacan." Sir H. C. Rawlinson 
remarks that this figure, has evidently been added 
subsequently to the execution of the original design, 
it being in a recess, as though this portion of the 
rock had at first been smoothed down for an inscrip- 
tion. It may be further noticed that this figure 
wears the high cap Herodotus tells us was the 
characteristic dress of the Sacse. The whole in- 
scription is in the three types of the Cuneiform 
writing. 

It is singular what blunders were made by even the 
ablest travelers, as to the meaning of this sculptured 
scene before Sir H. C. Rawlinson gave to the world, 
for the first time, in the tenth volume of the Asiatic 
Journal (1847), the true meaning of the inscription. 
Thus, Sir R. K. Porter, in an age when every new 
discovery in the East was assumed to have reference 
to Holy Scripture, beheld in these figures, Tiglath- 
Pileser and ten captive tribes, combining with a 
somewhat fanciful interpretation a singular igno- 
rance of Bible history, in that he assigned to the 
tribe of Levi, to whose representative he gave a sort 
of sacerdotal costume, a place among the captive 
tribes; while another and later traveler, Keppel, 
conceiving one of the figures a female, changed both 
scene and locality, confounded Susa with Ecbatana, 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 97 

and converted the whole train into Esther and her 
attendants, entreating the king of Persia to have 
mercy on her countrymen ! 

But although the Behistan inscription is by far the 
most important memorial of Darius and of the Per- 
sian state and system of his day, there are others 
having reference to him, at different places in Persia 
and Armenia. The information, however, we get 
from them, is by no means so full. In these inscrip- 
tions, as Sir H. C. Rawlinson has remarked, " We 
must be content for the most part to peruse a certain 
formula of invocation to Ormazd, and a certain 
empty parade of royal titles, recurring with a most 
wearisome and disappointing uniformity." 

I will now briefly notice the inscriptions of Darius 
at Persepolis. Sir H. C. Rawlinson thinks that 
during the lifetime of Darius, the platform, the 
pillared colonnade, and one of the palaces were con- 
structed ; the other buildings being due to Xerxes, 
Artaxerxes, and Ochus, of whom they bear comme- 
morative legends ; while Niebuhr, on the other hand, 
fancied that the palace, now known to be that of 
Xerxes, was the most ancient edifice at Persepolis. 
The inferiority of execution, however, to his mind 
a proof of higher antiquity, is really due to a decline 
in the art of carving. The inscriptions on the pre- 
sumed palace of Darius are unquestionably the oldest 
yet discovered at Persepolis, and are therefore placed 
first, both by Lassen and Rawlinson. Their posi- 
tion is over the figures of the king and of his two 
attendants, on the doorways of the central chamber; 

G 



9o HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

and their value is that they afford an historical inter- 
pretation to the group below them. 

On another tablet, a huge slab of stone, twenty- 
six feet long, and six high, occurs the following re- 
markable passage, showing the hatred the early Per- 
sians bore to the vice of lying. — "Says Darius the 
king: May Ormazd bring help to me, with, the 
deities who guard my house; and may Ormazd pro 
tect this province from slavery, from decrepitude, 
from lying : let not war, nor slavery, nor decrepi- 
tude, nor lies, obtain power over this province. 
That I hereby commit to Ormazd, with the deities 
who guard my house." 

The next inscriptions, if we take the chronological 
order suggested by Sir H. C. Rawlinson, are those 
engraven at the foot of the mountain of Alwand, in 
the immediate vicinity of the town of Hamadan 
(the Ecbatana of Greater Media). They are placed 
in two niches cut in the face of a huge block of red 
granite, and exhibit a Cuneiform inscription in the 
three different types, arranged in parallel lines ; the 
Persian occupying the first place or that furthest to 
the left. 

Other inscriptions referring to Darius, but of later 
date, have been found at Nakhsh-i-Rustam, near 
Persepolis : on these we find a somewhat longer list 
of conquered nations; and, if "the Scythians beyond 
the Sea " is an allusion to the famous expedition of 
Darius, these could not have been finished before B. 
c. 492. . There is one of the inscriptions (the upper 
one in Persian) containing nearly sixty lines, in 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 99 

tolerable preservation. We owe to the zeal of M. 
Westergaard, aided by a powerful telescope, the best 
copy of these inscriptions, which have been trans- 
lated by Sir H. C. Rawlinson and M. Lassen, and 
are, in sense, substantially the same as that at Al- 
wand. Besides these, there is a short inscription of 
Darius, on a very beautiful cylinder, in the British 
Museum, one of the finest known specimens of Per- 
sian gem engraving, and on a stone found near the 
embouchure of the ancient canal leading from the 
Nile to the Red Sea. 

The inscriptions of Xerxes, the son and successor 
of Darius, though numerous, have little of van'etv 
or interest. They are found at Alwand, at Perse- 
polis and at Van, and commence generally with the 
invocation to Ormazd, and the formal declaration 
of the royal name and titles adopted in the previous 
reign. We are not able to determine their chro- 
nological order; but with reference to the inscriptions 
found near Ecbatana, Sir H. C. Rawlinson observes, 
" that they were probably engraved on the occasion 
of one of the annual journeys which the monarchs 
respectively made between Babylon and Ecbatana, 
and their chief interest consists in the indication 
which they afford of the ancient line of communica- 
tion crossing Mount Orontes. This road, it is well 
known, was ascribed in antiquity to the fabulous age 
of Semiramis, * and I was able to assure myself by 

* We now know by the statues of Nebo in the British Museum, 
which are inscribed with her native name " Sammuramit," that 
Semiramis was really a queen of Nineveh during, probably, the 



IOO HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

a minute personal inspection, that, throughout its 
whole extent from the Ganj-nameh to the western 
base of the mountains, it still preserves the most 
unequivocal marks of having been artificially and 

most laboriously constructed On the 

western ascent of Orontes the artificial road is still 
very clearly marked, and on the summit of ,the 
mountain the pavement is still in very tolerable pre- 
servation." As at Persepolis Xerxes added largely, 
as we shall see hereafter, to the unfinished works of 
his father, his inscriptions on that site are numerous. 
Of these there are two classes — one (repeated ori- 
ginally perhaps twenty times, and still existing in 
twelve copies), a reduction of his standard inscrip- 
tion, giving the royal titles, &c, the other, on two 
high pilasters in the interior of the edifice, and on 
the eastern and western staircases of one of the most 
important buildings there, which is thus satisfactorily 
identified as his work. 

The inscriptions at Van do not furnish us with 
any new facts, and the only remaining ones of Xerx- 
es are on two vases of Egyptian alabaster, each of 
which however has an interest of its own. One of 
these originally belonged to the Count de Caylus, 
the other was found by Mr. Newton during his 
excavations on the site of the tomb of Maussollus at 
Halicarnassus. Each bears the royal title, "Xerxes 
the great king," in the three types of Cuneiform 
writing, together with an Egyptian royal cartouche, 

eighth century B.C. These inscriptions were first deciphered by- 
Sir H. C. Rawlinson. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. IOI 

containing his name expressed hieroglyphically. It 
is worthy of note that, long before any form of the 
Cuneiform writing was made out, Champollion read 
the name of Xerxes on the vase of the Count de 
Caylus. On the discovery by Sir H. C. Rawlinson 
of the Perso-cuneiform alphabet, the name of Xerx- 
es was at once detected on this vase, and a valuable 
corroboration thus obtained of the truth of his dis- 
coveries. Indeed, this remarkable vase ought alone 
to have proved that the interpretation of Cuneiform 
was not, as Sir Cornewall Lewis maintained, a "cun- 
ningly devised fable." Mr. Newton's discovery is 
chiefly valuable for the place where he found it, as 
the question naturally arises, how came it there ? 
My belief is that this vase was given by Xerxes to 
Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, in return for the 
aid in ships she had given him at the battle of Sala- 
mis. Fragments of other similar vases have been 
met with by Layard, Loftus and other excavators, in 
some cases bearing Cuneiform letters; and, as their 
material is Egyptian, it may be fairly presumed that 
a store of them was kept in the Royal treasury in- 
scribed with the king's name and titles, to be given 
from time to time to those whom he wished to honor. 
After the time of Xerxes, the writing of Cuneiform 
seems to have fallen into disuse, though it is occa- 
sionally met with up to the commencement of the 
Roman empire, and there are some interesting con- 
tracts, &c, on clay tablets bearing the names of 
more than one prince of the Seleucidae.* The rapid 

* The following is a list of all, or nearly all, the Perso-cuneiform 



102 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

extension of the Greek language, and its simplicity 
both for writing and reading, naturally diminished 
the use of even the Persian Cuneiform. The last 
monument I shall notice is a vase in grey porphyry, 
preserved in the treasury of St. Mark's at Venice, 
bearing on it an inscription badly written and spelt, 
' ' Artaxerxes the great king. " As on the two vases 
of Xerxes, here, also, is a cartouche with the same 
name written in hieroglyphics, which was long since 
deciphered by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. 

In concluding this portion of my story, I am 
tempted to transcribe a few eloquent words in the 
Quarterly Review for 1847 (attributed to Dean Mil- 
man), shortly after the first translations by Sir Henry 
(then Major) Rawlinson, appeared in the Journal 
of the Asiatic Society of London : "The more," 
says the writer, "we consider the marvellous cha- 
racter of this discovery, the more we feel some mis- 
trust and misgiving returning to our minds. It is 
no less, in the first place, than the creation of a 
regular alphabet of nearly forty letters, out of what 
appears, at first sight, confused and unmeaning lines 
and angles ; and, secondly, the creation of a lan- 
guage out of the words so formed from this alphabet ; 

inscriptions yet found, i. Cyrus at Murghab. 2. Darius, son of 
Hystaspes at Behistan, Alwand, Susa, Persepolis, Nakhsh-Rustam 
(with cylinder in Brit. Mus.). 3. Xerxes at Persepolis, Alwand, 
Van, and on vases of the Count of Caylus, and from Halicarnassus 
(in Brit. Mus.). 4. Artaxerxes I., Longimanus, on vase at Venice. 
5. Darius II. at Persepolis. 6. Artaxerxes Mnemon at Susa. 7. 
Ochus at Persepolis. 8. On a seal, bearing the name of Arsakes, 
noted by Grotefend. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I03 

and yet so completely does the case appear to be 
made out, that we are not in the least disposed to 
retract or even to suspend our adhesion to Professor 
Lassen and Major Rawlinson. To the latter espe- 
cially, an officer rather than a student by profession, 
almost self-instructed in some of the most important 
branches of knowledge requisite to the undertaking, 
tempted onwards, it is true, by these gradual revela- 
tions of knowledge expanding to his view, yet de- 
voting himself with disinterested, but we trust not 
hereafter to be unrewarded labor, we would express 
in the strongest terms our grateful admiration. His 
indefatigable industry in the cause of science can 
only be appreciated justly by those who know what 
it is to labor for hours under the sun of Persia ; for 
in some cases, when inscriptions are placed very 
high, are unapproachable by ladders, and are perhaps 
weatherworn or mutilated by accident, nothing less 
than the full effulgence of Ormazd can accurately 
reveal the names and deeds of his worshipers. The 
early travelers, as well as Porter, Rich, and all who 
have labored to obtain accurate transcripts of the 
Cuneiform inscriptions, bear testimony to the diffi- 
culties and even dangers which are incurred from 
this and other causes." 

It would be impossible within the limits of this 
small volume, to give a detailed account of the lan- 
guage enshrined in these inscriptions ; it is enough 
to state that abundant analogies support the belief 
that the ancient Persian tongue of the time of 
Darius, as well as that now spoken in the country, 



io4 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 



is a genuine member of the great family to which 
the term Indo-European has been happily applied. 
The most casual glance at any comparative list of 
words (especially of those in most common use) 
taken from these languages, will convince any reader 
of intelligence of the substantial relationship exist- 
ing between them. Thus, find — 



Old Persian. 


Sanscrit. 


Latin. 


German. 


English. 


Brdtar 




bhratar 


frater 


bruder 


brother 


Man (to 


• think; 


i man 


mens 


meinen 


mean. 


Duvard, 




dvara 


fores 


thiire 


door 


£ta (to 


stand) 


sth& 


sto 


stehen 


stand 


Mam 




mam 


me 


mich 


me 


Matar 




matar 


mater 


mutter 


mother 


Tuvam 




twam 


tu 


du 


thou 


Pad 




p£da 


ped-em 


fuss 


foot 



and so on. The chief characteristic of the Indo- 
European tongues is the possession of a number of 
roots, a peculiar mode of inflections, together with 
a constant resemblance between these inflections, 
and a general similarity of syntax and construction. 
One of these peculiarities, the form of the mascu- 
line terminations of the nominatives, applying to 
Persian names, was noticed by Herodotus (1.139). 
As a form of writing, the Persian Cuneiform is the 
most recent of the three types, and a simplification 
of the earlier ones, each group of arrow heads in 
this class representing a single letter : like the San- 
scrit and the Greek, it was written from left to right; 
no writing distinctively Median has been, I believe, 
yet detected. The stories of the letter sent from 
Harpagus to Cyrus, and of a certain Median king, 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I05 

Artseus, evidence the belief that orders to and from 
monarchs were conveyed in writing. Again, from 
Scripture, we know that " Darius the Mede " signs 
with his own hand a document brought to him by 
his nobles, while, at the Persian Court, as probably 
elsewhere, a volume was preserved called " The 
book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and 
Persia."* There must also have been for common 
and private use, some form of cursive writing 
(perhaps in Phoenician characters), easy to write and 
easy to read, as, on some of the Assyrian monu- 
ments, officers may be noticed writing down lists of 
spoil, captives, &c, on a material evidently papyrus, 
parchment, or leather. 

Having now said something of the personal history 
of early kings of Persia, and of the inscriptions en- 
shrining the truest details about them, I shall give 
some account of the most important antiquities, 
whether buildings or tombs, belonging to the same 
race. 

Now, of buildings, with the exception of the 
Tomb of Cyrus, already described, it is a remarka- 
ble fact, that scarcely a fragment is now certainly 
recognizable, with the exception of the great groups 
on the platform at Persepolis ; but these are so 
famous, that, although they have been given fully in 
many modern works, not difficult of access, it is ne- 
cessary for me to offer a short account. The usual 
modern name of these ruins is Takht-i-Jamshid, 
(the structure of Jamshid) or Chehl Minar (the 

* Esth. x. 2. 



Io6 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Forty Pillars) : they are situated a little off the main 
road between Ispahan and Shiraz, on a platform 
chiefly artificial, overlooking a rich and well watered 
plain. These ruins certainly represent the remains 
of one or more of the chief structures of the Achae- 
menian monarchy, the successive work of several 
of its kings ; and as such, still exhibit, after a lapse 
of twenty-two centuries, in the judgment of the first 
architectural authority in England, " by far the most 
remarkable group of buildings now existing in this 
part of Asia." * All the buildings stand on one 
and the same platform, on various levels, but no 
where at a less height above the plain than twenty- 
two feet ; the projecting spur of the adjoining moun- 
tain having been first partially levelled, and then 
built up wherever requisite. All round the platform 
are great retaining walls, composed of vast masses 
of hewn stone, not of a uniform size, but of larger 
and smaller blocks, wedged in together, after a 
fashion not altogether unlike that often called Etrus- 
can. As many of the individual stones measure 
forty-nine feet to fifty-five feet in length, and are 
from 63- to 9! feet in breadth, great mechanical 
skill must have been required to remove from the 
quarry such enormous weights, and to place them so 
as to present, as they do, a perfectly smooth per- 
pendicular wall, f Taking the mean of the mea- 

* Fergusson's Hand-book of Architecture, i. p. 188. 

f Supposing one of the blocks fifty-five feet long and nine feet 
broad, and only half as thick as broad, it would, if in limestone, 
weigh above fifteen tons, and if in marble, considerably more 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I07 

surements of those travelers who can the best be 
relied on, Mr. Fergusson estimates the greatest 
length and breadth of the platform at 1^500 and 
950 feet respectively. 

The outline of this remarkable platform is ir- 
regular, a fact probably due to the nature of the 
ground ; the present level is also very uneven, owing 
chiefly to the vast accumulation on it of fallen ruins : 
to the north, the native rock shows marks of the 
tools by which the upper portions were hewn down ; 
and in the adjacent quarries are still many slabs 
carved and ready for removal. It is clear, therefore, 
that here, as is the case with some of the great 
buildings in Egypt, additions contemplated were 
never carried into effect. The arrangement of the 
buildings on and within the boundary of the great 
platform, will be best understood, if it is borne in 
mind that they stand on three distinct terraces, each 
varying in some degree from the other, as regards 
their respective heights above the plain. Of these 
there still exist — that to the south; that about 
twenty-three feet above it; that to the north, about 
thirty-five feet; and, between these two, the central 
or upper terrace, on which repose the noblest re- 
mains, which is as much as forty-five feet. 

To reach these levels from the plain, and from one 
to the other, there is a series of gigantic staircases, 
unique in character and execution, which form one 
of the most characteristic features of Persepolitan 
art. Of these the grandest is that towards the 
northern end of the west front, which is still the 



Io8 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

only mode of access from the plain below. This 
staircase consists of a vast double flight of steps, 
rising from the south and the north, with a very gen- 
tle ascent, the height of each step being in no in- 
stance more than four inches. Indeed the ascent is 
so gradual, that Sir R. K. Porter and other travelers 
used to ride up it on horseback. The width of, the 
staircase is twenty-two feet, sufficient (it is said) to 
allow ten horsemen to ride up it abreast, the blocks 
used in their construction being often so vast, as to 
allow of ten to fourteen steps being cut out of the 
same block. It is a remarkable peculiarity in the 
construction, that the staircase does not project from 
the retaining wall, but is, as it were, taken out of it. 
On ascending the first flight, an oblong landing- 
place presents itself, whence springs a second flight 
of forty-eight steps ; while a couple of corresponding 
staircases form a landing-place on the grand level of 
the platform. Well may Fergusson exclaim that this 
is " the noblest example of a flight of stairs to be 
found in any part of the world."* Several other 
sets of smaller staircases occur in different parts of 
the platform, each one exhibiting some point of dif- 
ference worthy of attention in a detailed history of 
the site. It is enough here to notice particularly the 
one ascending from the level of the northern plat- 
form to the central or upper terrace. This staircase 
consists of four single flights of steps, two in the 
centre facing each other and leading to a projecting 

* Fergusson, Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis, pp. 102, 103. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. log 

landing-place, and two others on either side of the 
central nights at a distance of about twenty-one 
yards. These steps are sixteen feet wide; the whole 
of the upright sides are covered with sculptures, 
whereas the great outer one from the plain is un- 
sculptured. These sculptures consist of, first, on the 
spandrils, a lion devouring a bull ; and secondly, in 
the compartment between the spandrils, eight colos- 
sal Persian guards, armed with a spear, sword or 
shield. Beyond the spandril, where it slopes so as 
to form a parapet for the steps, a row of cypress trees 
have been carved, and at the end of the parapet, and 
along the whole of the inner face, is a set of small 
figures, representing guards as before, but this time 
generally with the bow and quiver, instead of the 
shield. Along the extreme edge of the parapet, ex- 
ternally, was a narrow border thickly set with 
rosettes. Again, in the long spaces between the cen- 
tral stairs and those on either side of them, are re- 
petitions of the lion and bull sculpture, while between 
them and the central stairs, the face of the wall is 
divided horizontally into three bands, each of which 
has once possessed its continuous row of figures. 
The principal subject, both of the right and left 
sides, is the bringing of tribute to the king by vari- 
ous subject nations. Three blank spaces have been 
left, probably in each case for inscriptions ; in one 
instance only, however, has this been carried into 
effect, viz. on the right hand or western end of the 
staircase, where may be plainly read, " Xerxes the 
great king, the king of kings, the son of king Darius, 



IIO HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

the Achsemenian." The usual Assyrian and Scythic 
versions have been here omitted.* On another stair- 
case is a tablet with the name of Ochus. Mr. Rich 
also noticed another staircase cut out of the solid 
rock, and serving as a means of communication 
between the southern and central terraces. 

The principal buildings on the platform are five in 
number, four on the central or upper terrace, and 
one at its end towards the mountain. Three of the 
first class may be conveniently named from their 
respective founders, the " Palaces " of Darius, Xerx- 
es, and Artaxerxes III., Ochus: the fourth, is the 
great pillared hall, called by Professor Rawlinson, 
"The Hall of Audience." To the fifth no other 
name can be given but that of the "Eastern Edifice." 
The palace of Darius was on the western, and highest 
part of the platform, and exhibits remains of several 
chambers, with external rooms, apparently guard- 
rooms, from the sculpture on the jambs of their door- 
ways of gigantic guards, armed with spears. Behind 
each guard-room was a principal room, fifty feet 
square, the roof having been originally supported by 
sixteen pillars, the bases of which only now remain. 
The only sculptures found in or near these rooms, on 
the jambs of the door- ways, are reliefs representing 
the king, followed by two attendants, one of whom 
holds the umbrella over his head, and the other a 
cloth and a fly-flapper ; or, engaged in forcing back 

* There would seem to be six other staircases with double flights, 
two of which belong to the " Palace of Darius " and two to that oi 
" Xerxes." 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. Ill 

and slaying a lion or some other monster, who is ap- 
parently trying to make his way into the palace. In 
the rear are traces of several smaller apartments. 

The measurements, conducted by Messrs. Flandin 
and Coste on the spot, have not determined whether 
this building ever had an upper story, but Mr. 
Fergusson has inferred from the Tomb of Darius 
(which we shall describe presently), that the pillars 
must have been intended to support such a story as 
is there indicated. As only the bases have been 
found, it is likely that the pillars themselves were of 
wood, thin and light, perhaps of cedar, or of some 
other rare and valuable timber,* and doubtless 
richly overlaid with precious metals or brilliant 
colors. As in other cases, the existing remains here 
are probably those of " Halls of Audience," while 
the private apartments of the great king, " the 
king's house," of the Bible, were doubtless contigu- 
ous, but somewhat behind ; distinct again from them, 
as now, in all Muhammedan countries, and in con- 
formity with the graphic details in the story of 
Esther, was the "Women's House :"f for all of 
them, there is ample room on the great platform. 

The Palace of Xerxes differs little from that of 
Darius, except that it is. still larger, the principal 
hall being eighty, instead of fifty feet square, with 
thirty-six, instead of sixteen pillars, to carry the 

* Polybius states this of the palace at Ecbatana (x. c. 27). In 
some of the recent excavations in Southern Babylonia, beams of 
teak have been found, which prove an early intercourse with India. 

t Esth. ii. 12-14. 



112 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

roof. Two of the larger of the side apartments, had 
also each four supporting pillars, and by setting the 
chief structure well back on the platform, room has 
been obtained for a magnificently wide terrace. In 
ornamentation, the combats of the king with the 
lions or monsters, is replaced by attendants, who 
bring articles for the toilette or the table, perhaps 
indicating as does also the architecture, the rapidly 
increasing growth of luxury. If, indeed, the Aha- 
suerus of Esther be the Xerxes of history, the gen- 
eral description in chapter ii., especially, and that 
of the great banquet given by Esther, fully corrobo- 
rate what we learn elsewhere, of the luxury of the 
Court in those later days. The Palace of Ochus, in 
its leading features, would seem to have been much 
like that of Xerxes, but is now too ruined to be 
worth describing. 

The fifth structure is what we have called the 
Eastern Palace. Here (if indeed Cyrus built any- 
thing) it is probable that we see his work; a smaller 
building on a platform, not so high as that of Darius, 
yet bearing a remarkable resemblance to it. No in- 
scriptions have as yet been discovered here, nor 
traces of the usual accompanying chambers ; but the 
fragments remaining are peculiarly massive, and the 
sculpture in very bold relief. As it faces the north, 
Professor Rawlinson suggests that it may have been 
built by Darius as a summer palace. 

I have now noticed all the buildings that were in- 
tended more or less for purposes of habitation. Be- 
sides these, however, are the Propylaea, (gate-ways 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. II3 

and guard chambers) commanding the entrances to 
the principal buildings, together with remains of 
other halls of vast size, probably once throne rooms. 
The former would seem to have been four in number : 
one of the largest, directly opposite the centre of the 
landing place from the plain, consisting of a great 
hall, eighty-two feet square, with a roof supported 
by four columns, each between fifty and sixty feet 
high ; its walls were fully sixteen feet thick, and the 
portals (each twelve feet wide and thirty-six high), 
pointed respectively to the head of the stairs, or to 
the east. As is the case in the Assyrian palaces, both 
of these portals were flanked by colossal man-headed 
bulls, which still retain, though much injured by 
their long exposure to the weather and to the ra- 
pacity of man, much of their original grandeur. 
The remarkable preservation of many of the finest 
of the Assyrian monuments is due, it must be remem- 
bered, to the fortunate accident of their burial, soon 
after the fall of Nineveh, in the soft clay, mainly 
produced by the disintegration of the unburnt 
bricks, of which the walls they decorated were com- 
posed. 

One distinguishing feature, indeed, of Persepolis 
is, that the walls have wholly disappeared, notwith- 
standing their enormous thickness ; hence Mr. Fer- 
gusson has conjectured that they were made entirely 
of clay, which, in the lapse of centuries, would perish 
under the influence of the winter rains and summer 
suns. Professor Rawlinson, on the other hand, sug- 
gests that they may have been constructed of small 



114 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

stones, which the natives of the neighborhood would 
be able and glad to carry off for their own purposes. 
It is not necessary to discuss here the meaning of 
the monsters and other mythical animals visible on 
Persepolitan sculptures ; but I may remark, that 
throughout Pagan mythology, the lion and the bull 
are usual emblems of force and power ; just as in the 
Bible, the horns of an animal are symbols of might 
and strength, of success and dominion. Thus Daniel 
says, "The great horn which is between his eyes, is 
the first king." There is also a famous passage in 
Ezekiel,* the imagery of which some have thought 
was suggested by the Ninevite monuments he might 
have seen while yet uncovered. Again, Alexander 
the Great is called in Oriental history Zri l-Kdrnain, 
or "he of the two horns," in allusion, perhaps, to 
his claim of descent from Jupiter Ammon, perpetu- 
ated as this is also on the coins, believed to bear his 
portrait. Daniel also (as we have seen) foretells the 
establishment of his empire, under the combination 
of human and bestial types. f 

Three other buildings remain, which have all had 
Propylaa, but they are much mutilated, and their 
purposes have not therefore been determined. One 
of these has been supposed by Sir R. K. Porter to 
represent the building said to have been fired by 
Alexander the Great ; but if so, careful examination 
of the remaining stone-work would surely show some 
traces of the calcining action of intense heat. On 
the other hand, we should have supposed that if 

* Ezek. i. 7, 9-10. j- Daniel vii. 4. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 115 

Alexander did really destroy by fire any building at 
Persepolis, he would have chosen for this barbarism, 
the finest building on the platform, and not one 
certainly inferior to some of the others. 

Of the Chehl Minar or great pillared Hall of 
Audience (sometimes called " The Hall of One Hun- 
dred Columns"), which we must now describe, Mr. 
Fergusson remarks, "We have no cathedral in Eng- 
land which at all comes near it in dimensions ; nor 
indeed in France or Germany is there one that 
covers so much ground. Cologne comes nearest to 
it . . . but, of course, the comparison is hardly fair, 
as these buildings had stone roofs, and were far 
higher. But in linear horizontal dimensions, the 
only edifice of the Middle Ages that comes up to it, 
is Milan Cathedral, which covers 107,800 feet, and 
(taken all in all) is perhaps, the building that resem- 
bles it most in style and in the general character of 
the effect it must have produced on the spectator."* 
This great hall was approached by a portico, about 
183 feet long, and fifty-two deep, its roof being sus- 
tained by sixteen pillars, thirty-five feet high, ar- 
ranged in two rows of eight each. Behind this por- 
tico was the great chamber itself, a square of 227 
feet, believed (from calculation, rather than from 
actually existing remains) to have been supported by 
100 columns of the same height as those of the por- 
tico, in ten rows of ten each. The walls inclosing 
it were about ten-and-a-half feet thick, with two door- 

* Fergusson, Palaces, pp. 171-2. Handbook of Architecture, i. 
p. 197. 



Il6 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

ways at each end, exactly opposite the one to the 
other. In the spaces of the wall, on either side of the 
doorways, to the east, west, and south, were three 
niches, all carrying the usual square tops of the Per- 
sepolitan windows and doors. No trace remains 
here, as in the case of the other "halls," of any 
smaller buildings attached to it. All the ornamen- 
tation indicates that the building was intended for 
public purposes, as here the monarch is seen sitting 
on his throne, under a canopy, with the tiara on his 
head, or engaged in destroying symbolical monsters. 
Again, on the jambs of the great doors is the same 
representation of seated majesty, while below him 
are guards, arranged five and five; the whole num- 
ber of figures represented amounting to two hundred. 
On the doors at the back of the building, the throne 
is represented as raised upon a lofty platform, the 
stages of Avhich, three in number, are supported by 
figures differently dressed, perhaps to indicate the 
natives of different provinces. 

"It is a reasonable conjecture," adds Professor 
Rawlinson, "that this great hall was intended espe- 
cially for a throne-room, and that, in the represen- 
tations on these doorways, we have figured a struc- 
ture which actually existed under its roof. ' ' I ought 
to add that of the 116 pillars, once in the hall and 
porch, eight bases only have as yet been discovered, 
six in the hall, and two in the porch, but I cannot 
help thinking that if another Layard will do for Per- 
sepolis one-half he did for Nineveh, much more may 
yet be found, and many unsolved problems set at 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 117 

rest. In front of the portico of the " Hall of a 
Hundred Columns," still stand the mutilated remains 
of what were probably man -headed 'bulls, though it 
must be admitted, that this is not quite certain, 
owing to their present ruined state. The columns 
and the composite capitals, of this portico, are of the 
same character as those in the Eastern Palace, the 
blocks of stone being often ten feet square by seven 
thick; hence Professor Rawlinson infers that this 
room may have served as the audience chamber of its 
builder. 

We come now to the last, but, on the whole, the 
greatest work on the whole platform, another great 
" Hall of Audience," the remains of which, stretch- 
ing 350 feet in one direction, and 256 feet in the 
other, comprehend more than 20,000 square feet. 
Its existing ruins consist almost wholly of four 
groups of enormous pillars, of the extraordinary 
height of sixty-four feet, carrying capitals formed of 
either two half-gryphons or two half-bulls, back to 
back, and themselves varying considerably from 
plain and simple fluting, to a remarkable richness 
of ornamentation. The bases of the columns are 
of great beauty, in form bell-shaped, and adorned 
with a double or triple row of pendent lotus-leaves, 
some rounded, and some narrowed to a point. Capi- 
tals and bases perfectly resembling these, and 
scarcely inferior to them in beauty of execution, 
were found by Mr. Loftus, in his excavations at Susa. 
There can be little doubt that these halls were once 
covered with a wooden roof, the double-bull capital 



Il8 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

being admirably adapted to support the ends of the 
beams. Indeed the use of such capitals is perfectly 
evident, from the copy in stone of a timber roof 
observable in the famous tomb of Darius at Nakhsh-i- 
Rustam. 

The architectural controversy, as to what the walls 
round this gigantic room were made of, need not 
be discussed ; the more so as it must be confessed, 
that all the theories proposed involve grave difficul- 
ties. Judging from other cases, had the walls been 
of stone, we should expect to find some traces of 
them ; while, on the other hand, it is hard to believe 
such a builder as Xerxes, with an unlimited supply 
of stone close at hand, would have used bricks, 
which were a necessity for the Assyrians and Baby- 
lonians, as for them stone had to be brought from a 
considerable distance. After all, the most probable 
description is that in Esther, evidently an account 
of a summer throne-room. " And when those days 
were expired, the king made a feast unto all the 
people that were present in Shushan the palace, unto 
great and small, seven days, in the court of the gar- 
den of the king's palace: where were white, green, 
and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen, 
and purple to silver rings, and pillars of marble ; the 
beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of 
red, blue, and white and black marble."* The heat 
of an ordinary Persian summer, suggests the proba- 
bility of such an arrangement, indeed, Loftus, in his 
notice of his excavations at Susa, remarks that 

* Esther i. 5-6. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. Iig 

" nothing could be more appropriate than this 
method at Susa and Persepolis, the spring residences 
of the Persian monarchs. It must be considered 
that these columnar halls were the equivalents of the 
modern throne-rooms ; here all public business was 
despatched, and here the king might sit and enjoy 
the beauties of the landscape."* 

Such must serve for some account of the far-famed 
Persepolis. In concluding this portion of my book, 
I will only say a few words on the remaining palaces 
known to have belonged to the Persian kings of the 
Achgemenian dynasty, and shall then briefly notice 
some of their tombs. 

The other palaces are the ruins found at Murghab, 
near the tomb of Cyrus ; at Istakhr, on the edge of 
the valley leading thence to Persepolis ; and at Susa. 
Those at Ecbatana and in the town of Persepolis 
have scarcely left even ruins. One of these structures 
at Murghab, as bearing the well-known inscription, 
" I am Cyrus the king, the Achsemenian," has been 
reasonably supposed to have been occupied, if not 
built by him. This building appears to be in form 
an oblong, of 147 feet by 116. Within it stands a 
single shaft, 36 feet high, and on the paved area 
around, are the remains of the basis of seven similar 
columns. If Messrs. Flandin and Coste are right, 
there were three rows, each containing four pillars 
originally ; and this number of rows corresponds, as 
Professor Rawlinson has remarked, to the number in 
Solomon's House of the Forest of Lebanon. "f The 

* Loftus, Chaldaea and Susiana, p. 375. f x Kings vii. 8 



120 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

smaller building, which is hard by, is a longer 
oblong, of 125 feet by 50. It is in front of this 
building that the square column stands, with the 
mythological relief on it, which we have already de- 
scribed. There is also in the immediate neighbor- 
hood, the remains of a platform of huge square 
stones, rusticated, after a fashion, not unlike the 
substructions of the temple at Jerusalem, recently 
brought to light by the excavations of the Palestine 
Fund. Mr. Rich, who has described it fully, men- 
tions one stone fourteen feet two inches long ; and 
Flandin and Coste more than one so enormous as 
thirty-two feet nine inches in length. The outline of 
the palace at Istakhr is well preserved, though only one 
column, twenty-five feet high, is standing, with the 
basis of eight others. The walls have been partially 
traced, and the jambs of several doorways detected. 
The palace at Susa has been fully described, from 
his excavations there, by Mr. Loftus, and is evidently 
in form a duplicate of Darius's palace at Persepolis. 
It stood, however, on a platform of sundried brick, 
originally constructed at a very remote period, pro- 
bably by some of the Kushite or Accadian rulers of 
Susiana. An inscription repeated on the basis of 
four pillars, proves that the building, resting on this 
mass of early brickwork, was erected originally by 
Darius ; while another inscription confirms its re- 
paration by Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus). It was at 
Susa, it will be remembered, that Daniel saw the 
vision of the ram with the two horns. " And I saw 
in a vision, and it came to pass, when I saw, that I 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 



121 



J§ 



MPfeflWipipM 




122 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

was at Shushan, in the palace, which is in the 
province of Elam; and I saw in a vision,"* &c. 

The remaining tombs of the kings of Persia show 
much resemblance to the tombs in Lycia and at 
Petra, in so far that they are formed by excavations 
on the sides of the hills, generally at a considerable 
height above the ground. Of this peculiar class ,of 
tombs there appear to be seven ; four in the valley of 
the Pulwar, to the northwest, and three near to Per- 
sepolis itself. They are all on the same plan, con- 
sisting generally of an upper space, in which the 
king is represented worshiping Ormazd ; and under 
this what might be a portico, but that the four 
columns are all engaged ; — that is, are really pilasters 
carved on the face of the rock, into the similitude of 
pillars. In the middle is an apparent door way, though 
the actual entrance into the tomb is below and behind 
the ornamental front. Of all these, by far the most 
famous, is the one known from the Cuneiform inscrip- 
tion on it, to be that of Darius, the son of Hystaspes. 
It is situated at Nakhsh-i-Rustam, about four miles 
from Persepolis, and has near it another tomb of near- 
ly the same character, though less richly ornamented. 
In their interiors these tombs show considerable dif- 
ferences. It is further worthy of note, that the tombs 
immediately above Persepolis, are more richly de- 
corated than the others, the lintels and sideposts of 
the doors being covered with rosettes, and the entab- 
lature above the cornice bearing a row of lions facing 
one another, on each side toward the centre. 

* Dan. viii. 2. 



CHAPTER V. 

Arsacidae — Arsakes I— Tiridates I— Artabanus— Mithradates I— 
Phraates II — Scythian invasion- -Mithradates II — Progress of 
the Romans — Orodes — Crassus — Pompey — Antony — Tiridates, 
son of Vologases — Trajanus — Avidius Cassius — Severus — Arta- 
banus — Battle of Nisibis. 

As already stated, with the death of Darius ends 
for more than five centuries the rule of native Per- 
sian sovereigns over more, perhaps, than the small 
province of Persis : I shall, therefore, now give some 
account of the Arsacidae, whose vigorous rule fills 
up the intervening period. 

It was in the reign of Antiochus Theos, the third 
of the Seleucida^ or Greek rulers of Syria and Meso- 
potamia, and about B.C. 250, that Askh or Arsaces 
slew the viceroy of Parthia, and spreading to the 
winds the sacred banner of the Darqfsh-i-Kawani 
(or Blacksmith's apron), which his uncle had saved, 
after the overthrow of Arbela, marched on Rhages 
(Rhey), at the same time inviting the other chief- 
tains of his people to join with him in a revolt 
against the Greek kings of Syria. 

Oriental writers claim Askh, though on no relia- 
ble grounds, as a descendant of the ancient kings of 
Persia ; but it is more probable that his revolt was 
mainly due to the success of a similar uprising 

123 



124 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

against the Seleucidse a few years earlier, on the part 
of the Bactrian Diodotus, showing, as this did, the 
then weakened hold of the ruling family over their 
more distant provinces. The two revolts, however, 
differed essentially in their character ; the one being 
of Greek against Greek, and under a Greek leader, 
the other "of an Asiatic race of a savage and rude 
type," against a more civilized and effeminate popu- 
lation. Besides this, there had been for years a 
tendency on the part of the Parthian tribes to sepa- 
rate themselves from the Persians, a tendency fos- 
tered, doubtless, in no small degree by the ancient 
enmity between the Magians and Zoroastrians. It 
was, in fact, the old story over again. As the 
Achsemenidse, when they were strong, had tried to 
stamp out Magism, so the Magians retorted when- 
ever they had the chance. The spring had, indeed, 
been pressed flat, yet had not lost its elasticity ; and 
the fall of Darius Codomannus probably aroused new 
hopes for the down-trodden Magians, the more so 
that the Seleucid Greeks, "cared for none of these 
things." We must not, however, lay too much 
stress on the religious side of the question ; no re- 
formation such as that by the Achsemenian Darius 
or the Sassanian Ardashir, was dreamt of; indeed, 
the actual faith of the Parthians was lax and all- 
embracing, a mixture of Scythic dogmas, Greek 
practices, and Semitic ideas, while the hostility of 
the ruling families was rather anti-Persian than any- 
thing else. Thus we find the Parthians setting up 
the statues of Greek divinities and adopting Greek 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 125 

as the usual language of their coins, and affecting the 
titles of Phil-Hellenes, even when most hostile to 
the Greeks. 

A revolt in many ways similar took place again, 
as we shall see, five, hundred years afterwards, when, 
in its turn, the oppressive rule of the Arsacidse had 
disgusted the subject population, and when, from 
wars and other causes, they held the reins of power 
with less vigor than at first : then it was, that the 
leaven of Zoroastrianism again swelled the masses, 
and the sceptre passed away from the house of 
Arsakes. It is likely, too, that the suppression or 
banishment of the Zoroastrian Magi,* or more purely 
native priesthood, had kept alive, especially in the 
more strictly Persian districts, during *the whole 
period of the Arsacidan rule, an undying hatred of 
their oppressors ; for the government of this family 
throughout was one of mere force ; the power of the 
chief monarch being supported by customs which 
exhibit some analogy with the feudal system of the 
Middle Ages. 

About the year B.C. 150, we find the Arsacidan 
family divided into five principal branches. 1. That 
of Persia including Parthia, whose chief was always 
the admitted head of the rest, the "king of kings." 

*The Magi, or priests of the religion of Zoroaster, must not be 
confounded with Magism, though, as we learn from the story of 
the Magophonia, Magus was the common name for the priests of 
Magism or elemental worship, as well as of Zoroastrianism. The 
Magi seem originally to have been a Median tribe (Herod, i. 101), 
but to have, subsequently, under the Persian rule, taken an active 
part in promoting Zoroastrianism. 



126 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

2. That of Armenia. 3. That of Bactria and of the 
adjacent provinces. 4. That of Georgia. 5. That 
of the Massagetse. Roughly speaking, it was a form 
of alliance, loosely enough interpreted, when there 
was no external foe, and liable to constantly recur- 
ring international feuds and wars. When, however, 
any of the separate provinces was threatened or as- 
sailed by an enemy from without, all alike joined to 
repel the common foe ; hence, when Rome attacked 
Parthia, the outlying districts of Georgia and the 
Caucasus at once united in its defence. That such 
a system should have so long prevailed, implies no 
inconsiderable power of concentration, and it is 
likely it would have endured much longer than it 
did but for the exterminating wars with the Romans 
in which it was ultimately involved. Add to this, 
that many of the younger princes of the house had, 
by that time, tasted in Rome luxuries of which they 
had scant experience in their mountain homes, and 
(as Juvenal has remarked) had returned to Artaxata 
with habits very different from those of their frugal 
and hardy ancestors.* 

The reign of Arsakes I., lasted only two years; 
and he can hardly be said to have secured his power 

* I may here observe, en passant, that for the early history of 
the Arsacidae, we are almost wholly indebted to the Roman writers, 
as we are for the later times to the Armenian chronicles : the Arsa- 
cidse, indeed, left no personal memorial but their coins. The more 
modern Persian writers notice their rulers only as Muluk-al-Thu- 
waif, " Chiefs of bands." The Shah-nameh of Firdusi has only 
three or four pages for the whole 500 years of their history, while 
the Seleucidse are not even mentioned, 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. \T] 

when he was killed in battle. His successor, how- 
ever, Tiridates I., was, fortunately for his family, a 
man of great ablility, and to him is due the con- 
solidation of the empire of which Arsakes had laid 
the foundations.* With him. known in history as 
Arsakes II., arose the practice of double names for 
each monarch, the one his private, the other his 
dynastic designation ; and as the Romano-Greek 
writers have preserved many of these private names, 
we are thus able to determine correctly most of their 
dates. 

In the early part of his reign, Tiridates annexed 
Hyrcania, and, not long after, persuading the son 
of the Bactrian Diodotus to throw in his lot with 
him, the confederates completely defeated the whole 
forces of the Seleucid Callinicus. Can we wonder 
that the Parthians yearly celebrated, by a solemn 
anniversary, the remembrance of a victory, which 
must have been the result of a very unequal struggle? 
From this period till his death, Tiridates was peace- 
fully employed in building his famous city of Dara 
or Dariaeum, the site of which had not yet been dis- 
covered by the zeal or the imagination of Eastern 
travelers. His son and successor, Artabanus, taking 
advantage of a war between Antiochus III., and one 

* The original centre of the Arsacidan rule, was around the mid- 
dle of the Caspian Sea ; and their advance into the valley of the 
Tigris was gradual. Moreover, though at times they held the whole 
country to the Persian Gulf, the foundation by Antiochus Theos of 
the town of Spasini-Kharax in B.C. 140, as it deprived them of a 
direct trade with India, so it prevented them from becoming a 
naval as well as military power. 



1 23 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

of his satraps, Achaeus, added to his dominions the 
district between Hyrcania and the Zagros mountains, 
the result being, as might have been anticipated, a 
war between the Parthians and the Seleucidse, the 
details of which are wanting. In the end, however, 
we know that Antiochus of Syria made peace with 
his troublesome neighbor, and, by recognizing his 
independence, showed he had found his match, if 
not his superior, in the Parthian king. From this 
time to the close of the reign of Artabanus, we find 
nothing certain in Parthian history, nor is it worth 
while to attempt the unraveling of a skein so en- 
tangled. 

With the reign of Mithradates L, (b.c. 174), 
Parthia takes a leap in advance, and acquires dimen- 
sions fully justifying Professor Rawlinson in the 
name he has given to it, of "The Sixth Oriental 
Monarchy." No doubt the conditions of the time 
favored the views of Mithradates, the Seleucidae 
having then lost much of their original power, while 
their sceptre was in the hands of a boy, Eupator, 
with two rival claimants for the regency, Lysias and 
Philip. Mithradates, therefore, attacked Media, and 
after a vigorous resistance on the part of its inhabit- 
ants, secured for himself the great province of Media 
Magna. He next added to his dominions Hyrcania 
on the north, and Elymais or Susiana on the south ; 
and, by the submission of the Persians and Baby- 
lonians, extended his monarchy from the Hindu- 
Kush to the Euphrates. How far Eastward he went 
is doubtful ; but it has been thought that he did not 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 29 

stay his hand till he had annexed to his domains the 
Panjab and head waters of the Indus. 

On this point, however, so far as it is worth, 
numismatic evidence seems conclusive, as no Par- 
thian coins have been found in this region ; while, 
on the other hand, it is certain that Graeco-Bactrian 
monarchs held Kabul and Western India, till at least 
B.C. 126. We may fairly believe that his sway ex- 
tended over all the countries west of the Suleiman- 
Koh, a tract estimated by Professor Rawlinson as 
1,500 miles, east and west, by a. breadth in some 
parts more than 400 miles ; no inconsiderable part 
of which comprises the most fertile regions of 
Middle and Western Asia. Envy, however, if no 
better reasons, suggested an attempt to reduce his 
power, and the Seleucid ruler Demetrius led an 
attack he perhaps thought would be acceptable to 
some of the aggrieved populations of the neighbor- 
hood. In this, however, he miscalculated alike their 
feelings and the real resources of the Parthian mon- 
arch. In one great battle his army was completely 
destroyed, and he himself was exhibited as a captive 
though, as it would seem, with the treatment due to 
his rank, through several of the provinces that had 
revolted ; a warning to those who should in future 
attempt to thwart the new Asiatic empire. 

After a thirty-eight years' glorious reign, which 
fully entitled him to adopt the proud designation of 
"King of kings," he was the first of the Parthians 
to assume, Mithradates died B. c. 136. This monarch 
was also the first to wear the tiara, or tall stiff crown, 
1 



I30 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

which, with some modifications, remained the royal 
head-dress till the final overthrow of the Sassanian 
dynasty by the Muhammedans, a. d. 641. Like the 
Achasmenian kings, those of the house of Arsakes 
occupied different residences according to the season 
of the year. Their winter they generally spent at 
Ctesiphon, and the rest of the year at Ecbatana 
(Hamadan), Tape in Hyrcania, or Rhages (Rhey). 

Mithradates was succeeded by his son Phraates 
II., and a war with Syria would probably at once 
have broken out had not the then ruler of Syria, 
Antiochus Sidetes, been afraid to leave in his rear 
Judaea, which his predecessor Demetrius had openly 
declared independent. The independence, however, 
of the Jews did not last long, and, their ruler, John 
Hyrcanus, was compelled to admit the authority of 
the Syrian monarch, and to pay tribute, as before, in 
token of his submission (b. c. 133).* Antiochus then 

* The gallant resistance of the Jews against Antiochus Epi- 
phanes and the fearful end of that impious king are well told in 
1 Maccab. iii. 4, and 2 Maccab. i. 9 ; yet, bad as he was, it seems 
to me that we are not bound to consider him, even as the Anti- 
Christ of the Old Testament. Certainly he opposed God, in that 
he was very zealous for his own false gods, as is abundantly shown 
by Polybius. The same fact is clear from the Bible — '' King Anti- 
ochus wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, 
and every one should leave his own laws " (1 Mace. i. 41, 42) — in 
others words, he wished to enforce an unbending state religion. 
But the true Anti-Christ would seem to be an apostate from the 
truth, not one, who, like a heathen, might exchange one error for 
another. His chief characteristics are self-exaltation, contempt of 
all religion, blasphemy against the true God, and apostacy from 
the God of his fathers. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I3I 

proposed an attack on the Parthians, and at the first 
was completely successful, winning three battles in 
succession : in the end, however, the hardy moun- 
taineers were too much for the enervated people of 
the plains, and Antiochus and his whole army were 
destroyed. Henceforward Parthia enjoyed, unmo- 
lested by the Seleucidse the power it had acquired 
by honest fighting, indeed, the Greeks were scarcely 
able to maintain their now small domains of Cilicia 
and Syria Proper, encroached on as they were alike 
by Romans, Egyptians, and Arabs. In another sixty 
years, Syria became, as it might have been long be- 
fore, a Roman province. 

Phraates himself perished with the flower of his 
army in a conflict with the Scythians aided by a 
body of revolted Greeks. These Scythians, who had 
previously been in some measure allied to the Par- 
thians (at least, so far as their wandering habits per- 
mitted), — were a portion of the great nomad hordes 
of Central Asia, who like the Cimmerii, to whom we 
have alluded, before historic times and often since, 
have swept down on the fertile, cultivated and com- 
paratively refined south, like a whirlwind of locusts. 
Each country in its turn had to curse the presence 
of these savage and barbarous hosts, and Parthia had 
now to combat warriors as brave and as active as the 
best of her own people. To check their first advance 
the Parthian princes had paid them a sort of black 
mail ; but Bactria, less fortunate, was rapidly over- 
whelmed to the north and west. 

The Scythian tribes are known under several titles, 



132 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

as the Massagetse, Dahae, Tochari and Sakarauli — 
and their manners and sometimes cannibal practices 
are fully recorded in Herodotus and Strabo. This 
time again the Scythians were superior in the con- 
flict, and another Parthian king (Artabanus II.) was 
slain; but, on the accession of the next monarch, 
Mithradates II., termed, from his famous deeds,, the 
Great, the tide of Scythian victory was arrested, and 
they were driven back, and compelled to pour their 
superabundant numbers into Seistan and the Eastern 
provinces of Persia.* 

Thus was formed the famous Indo-Scythic king- 
dom, of whose chieftains we have so many monetary 
records. Occupying, as they did, the plains south 
of the Hindu-Kush between Bactria and the Panjab, 
and occasionally extending their power even to the 
mouth of the Indus, this Scythian kingdom effectually 
separated India from Greece, and arrested the grow- 
ing influence of Greek manners and civilization ; 
indeed, but for these intervening hordes, there seems 
no reason why the Greek language should not have 
been as well understood on the Jumna and the 
Ganges as on the Nile. Having disposed of the 
Scyths, so far as his own country was concerned, 
Mithradates II. commenced his memorable wars with 
the Armenians, a people originally of the same Tu- 
ranian origin with the Parthians themselves, but, in 

* The present name of this portion of Persia, Seistan (or on the 
coins Sejestan) is a memorial of this Scythic invasion, the district 
they occupied having been naturally called Sacastene — the land of 
the Sacas. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 33 

later years, owing to a considerable infusion of Aryan 
elements, the faithful allies, as a rule, of the Achse- 
menidae. The first independence of Armenia dates 
from B. c. 190, the year in which Antiochus the Great 
was defeated by the Romans ; but, a few years after- 
wards, Armenia became again for a short time sub- 
ject to the Seleucidse. No details of the war between 
Mithradates II. and the Armenians have been pre- 
served, but there can be but little doubt that their 
resistance to the Parthians was as brief as it was 
unsuccessful. 

Another event was, however, now about to take 
place, which changed the whole character of Eastern 
affairs, and brought into the plains of Asia a race 
of warriors unsurpassed by even the Macedonians of 
Alexander. The course of their previous war in 
Greece had enabled the Roman leaders to read dis- 
tinctly their future destiny, though they did not at 
first follow out the line so clearly traced for them. 
When the consul, Acilius Glabrio, was about to drive 
the forces of Antiochus from that pass which, as has 
been remarked, "was never stormed, and whose only 
conqueror has been nature," he addressed his sol- 
diers in an oration plainly demonstrating the views 
of these ambitious republicans. "What," said he, 
' ' shall hinder, but that from Gades to the Red Sea 
we should have but one boundary, the ocean, who 
holds the whole circuit of the earth in his embraces ; 
and that the whole race of men should venerate the 
Roman name, as second only to the gods ?" Now it 
was, that Latin, " the voice of empire and of war, 



134 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

the true language of history, instinct with the spirit 
of nations, and not with the passions of indi- 
viduals," bade fair to become what its half-sister, 
the Greek, was already, the common tongue of the 
civilized world. 

To the unbending rule of Rome, each nation in 
its turn was to yield ; republics in Europe, mon- 
archies in Asia, the cavalry of the East, the foot 
soldiers of the West — all alike were now to be frozen 
up in one iron uniformity. ''The mistress of the 
world," says Wilberforce, "sent forth her praetors 
and proconsuls to rule instead of kings ; vast roads, 
uniform and unbending, were the tracks she made 
for herself through the world, that so the most in- 
accessible countries might be laid open to her 
armies; and, in making them, she hewed through 
mountains and filled up vallies, as though the earth 
was as subject to her as its inhabitants. ' ' 

Hitherto, the interposition of the kingdom of 
Syria, and of the provinces of Cappadocia and 
Armenia, had prevented actual contact between the 
Romans and the Parthians ; but their mutual pro- 
gress was continually bringing them nearer ; while 
another great power, too, had about the same time 
sprung up in the same neighborhood, that of Mithra- 
dates V., of Pontus, the son of a former ally of 
Rome, whose rise was perhaps more sudden and more 
remarkable than that of any other of the kings of 
Western Asia. Hostile as he was, alike to Roman 
and Parthian, it was but natural that a joint effort 
should be made by the latter power and Rome, to 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 135 

repress the new and common enemy ; hence an em- 
bassy from the Parthian Mithradates II., to Sylla, 
shortly after the defeat of the Cappadocians by the 
Romans, an embassy perhaps stimulated by the fact 
that Tigranes of Armenia had attached himself to 
the cause of the king of Pontus, and had taken from 
Parthia the whole of Upper Mesopotamia. Sylla, 
however, did not at once fall in with this scheme, 
and the Parthian Mithradates II., soon after died, 
after a reign of more than thirty-five years. 

For some years after this event, it is not clear who 
was the actual ruler of Parthia; but during this 
period the great war between the Romans and 
Mithradates of Pontus was in progress, the obvious 
policy of the Parthians being to keep aloof, and to 
amuse both sides with fair words and empty promises ; 
in the end, however, Phraates III., made an alliance 
with Pompey, and marching into Armenia while the 
Roman general was occupied with Mithradates, was 
completely successful. But Pompey, perhaps not 
choosing at the time to give additional strength to 
any Asiatic prince, not only failed to reward Phra- 
ates for his services, but drove the Parthians out of 
Gordyene (or Upper Mesopotamia), which had 
always been considered an integral part of their em- 
pire, while he at the same time refused to the Par- 
thian monarch his now customary title of "King 
of kings." As each party, apparently, had a whole- 
some dread of the other, war, though often immi- 
nent, did not break out, and a proposal for arbitra- 
tion on the part of Pompey was accepted. Phraates 



I36 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

soon after this was assassinated, about B.C. 61, and 
another period of confusion in Parthian history arose. 

Orodes, the next monarch of note, ascended the 
throne about B.C. 56, just as Crassus announced his 
intention of carrying the Roman arms across the 
Euphrates. But the Parthian monarch was not to 
be caught sleeping, and made good use of nearly 
two years in completing his preparation against the 
invader. Indeed, Crassus, even after he had reached 
Syria, seemed in no hurry to commence the attack ; 
hence the first campaign passed away uselessly, while 
in the second he would, perhaps, have hardly taken 
the initiative, had he not been provoked by the 
taunts of a Parthian ambassador to march like a 
madman across Mesopotamia, through an arid, track- 
less district, where he was exposed to incessant as- 
saults by the innumerable cavalry of his enemy. 
He was also opposed by the ablest Parthian general 
of the time, Surena,* who, at the age of less than 
thirty years, had been entrusted by the Parthian 
king with his best troops. 

The Parthian, like the Persian cavalry, was of two 
classes, one, a body lightly armed with only a bow 
of great strength, and a quiver of arrows ; the 
other, a body of heavy cavalry, with horses, like 

* It was long thought that Ammianus was right in supposing 
Surena, or Surenas, a title rather than a proper name, in fact, that 
of the personage next in rank to the king himself (xxiv. 2), while 
Appian supposed this title hereditary in the family of the Surena 
who conquered Crassus. The Armenian records show that it was 
really the name of one of the leading families among the Parthians. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 37 

their riders, clad in armor, and carrying a long and 
heavy spear, more powerful and weightier than even 
the pihim of the Romans. The armament of Surena 
was almost wholly cavalry, but probably of both 
classes; he had besides, an invaluable aid in a traitor 
named Abgarus, who, himself commanding a body 
of light horse in the service of Crassus, revealed to 
his countrymen the Roman plans, as fast as they 
were formed. At length the two armies met, and 
the Romans had their first experience of the special 
tactics of their new enemies, who, completely en- 
veloping them with their cavalry, plied them with a 
ceaseless discharge of arrows. In vain they at- 
tempted to advance : as they rushed forward, the 
Parthians fell back just as suited best their mode of 
fighting, destroying utterly by a stratagem, some 
6000 Gaulish troops under the son of Crassus. On 
the next day but one, the remnant of the Roman 
army capitulated, on the death of their general, 
Crassus, in a chance melee, occasioned by an attempt 
on the part of the Parthians, to capture him during 
a conference with Surena. "Of the entire army," 
says Professor Rawlinson, "which had crossed the 
Euphrates, consisting of about 40,000 men, not 
more than a fourth returned. One half of the whole 
number perished." 

It is said, that the news and the bloody head of 
Crassus reached Orodes, while watching, with Arta- 
vasdes, the acting of the " Baccha^ " of Euripides, 
his intended war with the Armenian chief having 
been changed into matrimonial festivities. Florus 



I38 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

and Dio add the more questionable story, that the 
Parthians, believing the expedition of Crassus to 
have sprung from mere lust of plunder, poured 
melted gold into his mouth. It may be remarked, 
in conclusion, that the result of this great victory 
was by no means what might have been anticipated, 
as Orodes did not follow it up, but wasted much 
valuable time in the siege of various towns (an opera- 
tion of rare success, when performed by Asiatic 
troops). 

We hear little more of Orodes, till when, a few 
years later, Pompey was, on his part, desirous of an 
alliance which might strengthen him against his great 
adversary, Caesar : but the terms Orodes demanded, 
the absolute surrender of the whole province of Syria, 
were obviously such as no Roman could accept ; 
and, though, after Pharsalia, Caesar professed his 
intention of carrying the war into Parthia, that 
country was spared by the daggers of the conspira- 
tors from open conflict with the greatest general of 
his age. 

Nor was this all : the quarrels among the Triumvirs 
gave the Parthians the hope of securing some por- 
tion of the Roman dominions in the East, especially 
as Antony, after having alienated many of the 
Eastern nations by his exactions, had retired to 
Egypt. They, too, had at that time with them a 
Roman general of some reputation, the younger 
Labienus, who, like his father, having supported the 
cause of Pompey, had a reasonable dread of the pro- 
scriptions of the victors. Hence a characteristic 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 39 

outburst, in which their hosts of cavalry overran a 
great portion of Syria, taking even such towns as 
Apamsea and Antioch, and a further raid by the 
Parthian king (Pacorus) himself, into Phoenicia and 
Palestine, and by Labienus into Asia Minor. In this 
war Jerusalem submitted to the indignity of receiving 
as its ruler Antigonus, the last of the Asmonsean 
princes, from the hands of Pacorus, who had been 
bribed to espouse his cause against John Hyrcanus 
by the gifts of iooo talents and 500 Jewish women : 
the spectacle was then witnessed of its last priest- 
king, sitting on the throne of David, from B.C. 40 to 
B.C. 37, as the satrap and dependent vassal of a 
foreign monarchy. 

But these successes were of short duration. In 
the autumn of B.C. 39, the lieutenant of Antony, 
Ventidius, in a campaign of remarkable rapidity and 
brilliancy, cleared Syria of the invaders, and, in the 
following spring, completely routed the Parthian 
army and slew Pacorus. Indeed, it is manifest 
throughout their whole history, that, for long-sus- 
tained efforts the Parthians were no match for the 
Romans ; their military system, never varying, lacked 
elasticity and the power of adaptation to new and 
changing circumstances; and, though admirably 
adapted for the great plains of Asia, failed in more 
contracted and difficult regions. Hence, when 
Rome, to meet her new enemy, changed her armament 
accordingly, the Parthians gave up their previous 
policy of aggression, preferring rather to stand at 
bay than to commence the attack : it was a wiser if 



14° HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

not a nobler plan, to defend their territories from 
invasion, and to this Parthia consistently adhered 
during the remaining two centuries and a half of her 
existence as a separate monarchy. 

When, a little later, Orodes, like so many of his 
predecessors, perished by assassination, Antony, 
hearing that his son and successor, Phraates, with 
his hands imbrued in the blood of father and sub- 
jects, alike, had alienated from him many of his 
chief nobles, thought the opportunity had come for 
avenging the losses of the Roman arms under Cras- 
sus, and of exalting his own fame and renown. But 
he was destined to meet with a chastisement, less 
fatal, indeed, than that of Crassus, yet scarcely less 
humiliating. Advancing rashly by forced marches 
to Phraaspa, and still more rashly dividing his forces 
at that place, he allowed the Parthians to close upon 
his lieutenant, Oppius Stasianus, to destroy his army 
and more than ten thousand Romans, and to cap- 
ture his baggage and munitions of war. Nor was 
this all : Artavasdes, the monarch of Armenia who 
had been mainly instrumental in inducing Antony 
to attempt this perilous march, with true Oriental 
instinct deserted his Roman friend, in the belief that 
the Roman cause was now desperate. 

The position indeed of Antony was one of the 
utmost danger: and he had no alternative but to 
fall back on the Araxes, harassed, for nineteen con- 
secutive days, in every way the Parthians could 
harass him, without allowing themselves to be drawn 
into a pitched battle. At length, after a march of 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 141 

277 English miles, the Romans crossed the "un- 
bridged " Araxes, at the ferry of Julfa,* and found 
themselves in the comparatively friendly land of 
Armenia, though with the loss of not less than 
30,000 men. In the following year, B.C. 35, Antony, 
who had spent the winter at Alexandria, repaid the 
treachery of the Armenian Artavasdes by over- 
running his country, and capturing him with an in- 
credible amount of booty; a natural, but unwise, 
act of retaliation, as it at once drove the Armenians 
to make common cause with the Parthians, and thus 
united two powerful provinces which a shrewder 
policy would have kept apart. 

Some years later (b.c. 20) Augustusf received back 
the standards taken from Crassus, the then Parthian 

* Virgil's " pontem indignatus Araxes " (^En. viii. 728), refers to 
a few years later, when Tiberius, as lieutenant of Augustus, cer- 
tainly penetrated into the heart of Armenia. It may, however, be 
doubted whether, even then, the Romans built a bridge over the 
Araxes, but they were the only engineers then who could have done 
so. Certainly they did not do it under the feeble rule of Honorius, 
as Claudian would have us believe. 

f It was in B.C. 22 that Augustus first publicly announced his 
expedition to the East, but personally did no more than encamp 
his army along the Euphrates. Tiberius had, however, by this 
time marched into Armenia, for Horace speaks of the submission 
of the " Cold Niphates " (doubtless JYebad, or Ararat) and of the 
" river of the Medes " (Od. i. 2) — and it may be, that a successful 
battle near Ararat, in the heart of Armenia, hastened the return 
of the captured standards. Horace probably uses a poet's license 
when he makes Phraates on his knees re-accept his kingdom from 
Augustus (Epist. i. 12) ; but it is nevertheless certain that Augus- 
tus carried the four sons of Phraates to Rome, leaving a fifth, and 
illegitimate one, to poison the Parthian king. 



142 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

king, Phraates, being well aware that he could not 
resist such a force as the Roman Emperor could 
have brought against him. Many years of compara- 
tive peace then ensued, as the immediate successors 
of Augustus adhered faithfully to his judgment, that 
the Roman empire had reached its limits : nor, in- 
deed, was it till Trajan again awakened the dream 
of universal empire, that any serious struggle took 
place between Rome and Parthia. It is not neces- 
sary to notice here several petty wars about this 
period, most of which may be traced to the weak- 
ness and vacillation of the Armenian princes or of 
their subjects. I ought, however, to mention that, 
during this interval, a new race had become involved 
in the various conflicts of the times, with a capacity 
as soldiers the Romans were long unwilling to admit. 
Vast numbers of Jews were now spread over Western 
Asia. Some, probably the descendants of the colo- 
nies planted by the kings of Assyria and Babylon, 
others dwellers from choice in the countries adjacent 
to Palestine, as the Parthians, were generally tole- 
rant, especially when toleration promoted their com- 
mercial interests. " They formed," says Professor 
Rawlinson, "a recognized community, had some 
cities which were entirely their own, possessed a 
common treasury, and, from time to time, sent up 
to Jerusalem the offerings of the people under the 
protection of a convoy of 30,000 or 40,000 men." 
In fact the Parthians must have felt that this Jewish 
population was, in some degree, a counterpoise to the 
disaffected Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I43 

The only other event of importance at this period 
was the quarrel between Vologases and the Romans 
which led to several attacks by the Parthians on Ar- 
menia, but is chiefly remarkable for the visit of his 
son Tiridates to Rome, an event as curious as it is 
strange. It appears that after the recovery of Ar- 
menia by the Romans, Corbulo, the Roman general, 
insisted that Tiridates should proceed to Rome and 
receive his crown direct from the hands of Nero, 
while he detained one of his sisters as a hostage that 
this act should be fully carried into execution. We 
learn that after a while Tiridates set out, accompanied 
by his wife and an escort of 3000 Parthian cavalry, 
that passing through two-thirds of the empire they 
were everywhere received as though in a triumphal 
procession, and that great cities turned out to wel- 
come them and hung their streets with festive gar- 
lands. After riding on horseback the whole way, 
through Thrace and Illyricum, on their reaching 
Rome, the whole city was illuminated on the night 
before the investiture, and, on the following day, the 
Armenian prince ascended the rostra, and seated 
himself at the feet of the emperor. As Professor 
Rawlinson has well put it, "The circumstance of his 
journey and reception involved a concession to 
Rome of all that could be desired in the way of 
formal or verbal acknowledgment. The substantial 
advantage, however, remained with the Parthians. 
The Romans, both in the East and at the capital, 
were flattered by a show of submission ; but the 
Orientals must have concluded that the long struggle 



144 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

had terminated in an acknowledgment by Rome of 
Parthia as the stronger power." The establishment 
of the Parthian Tiridates as king of Armenia, secured 
a considerable period of peace between Rome and 
Armenia ; hence there is little to record here, except 
another irruption from the north by a Scythian 
named Alaric in a.d. 78, which gave the oppor- 
tunity of revolt to the Hyrcanians and was thus the 
first step towards the disruption of the long sway of 
the Arsacida?. 

For the first years of his reign Trajan was suf- 
ficiently occupied by the nations of the West ; but, 
in a.d. 114, having conquered Dacia, he resolved to 
reassert the dominion of Rome in Asia, much weak- 
ened as this had been during the reigns of his un- 
warlike predecessors. The times too had greatly 
changed since the conquests of Lucullus and An- 
tony, and new elements of confusion had arisen, 
tending to disintegrate still further the . already par- 
tially collapsing rule of the Parthians. Christianity 
was already acting "as a dissolvent on the previ- 
ously existing forms of society, ' ' and Judaism, 
" embittered by persecution, had from a nationality 
become a conspiracy." 

To avert the meditated attack of Trajan, the am- 
bassador of the ruler of Armenia, Chosroes, met 
him at Athens, and tried by rich gifts to come to 
any arrangement short of invasion ; but Trajan had 
resolved on a campaign, in which he hoped to emu- 
late, if not surpass, the deeds of Alexander. His 
chance, however, of any such distinction was small, 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 145 

as the forces of the Eastern princes were no longer 
what they had been, when they crushed Crassus and 
humbled Antony. No Orodes or Phraates III. held 
the sceptre of the East ; hence, when Trajan had 
passed Samosata, he was not stayed on his onward 
course, though Parthamasiris, the Parthian ruler, in 
the most abject manner, divesting his brow of his 
diadem, laid it at the feet of the emperor. It was 
evidently the opinion of Trajan that such submission 
was simply a matter of course, deserving little praise 
or thanks, still less reward ; the Parthian was simply 
to do the bidding of Rome. Nor, indeed, had this 
been all, would there have been much to remark 
about it ; it would have been but another instance 
of the weaker going to the wall. But, as all will 
regret, Trajan was not content with the submission 
of the young prince, but shortly afterwards put him 
to death. As the whole character of Trajan is averse 
to petty assassinations, it is but fair to suppose that, 
in this instance, he was misled by false or doubtful 
rumors, the more so as he had the courage to avow 
that this deed was wholly his own, and therefore 
probably believed it a necessary act of justice. 

The general result of the first campaign was, that 
Greater and Lesser Armenia were formed into one 
province, and the nations taught that Rome was the 
power they had most to dread. In the same year 
Mesopotamia was in like manner reduced, while in 
that following (a.d. 116) the provincial towns of 
Nineveh,* Gaugamela, and Arbela, fell into the 

* It is supposed that the Roman colony of Nineveh was founded 
K 



I46 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

hands of the Romans, the whole tract between the 
Zagros and the Tigris having been over-run : other 
places, too, of great importance, as Hatra and Cte- 
siphon, submitted, and there seemed no limit to 
Roman conquest. 

But the Parthian well knew his advantages ; if he 
could not fight in the open field, he could fall back 
as the Roman advanced, and leave a desert behind 
him, impracticable for even Roman military genius. 
Above all, while Trajan, the first and the last em- 
peror to do so, was lamenting, on the waters of the 
Indian Ocean, that his advanced age alone prevented 
his adding India to his conquests, the Parthian could 
foment disaffection in his rear, and thus compel the 
vain-glorious conqueror to retrace his steps through 
the half-subdued regions behind him. Hence, too, 
willing instruments of the Parthian policy, the po- 
pulace of Seleucia, Hatra, -and Nisibis, rose in arms 
behind him, and it is likely that his retreat would 
have been cut off had his lieutenants been less equal 
to their duties, or unable to crush at its commence- 
ment the spreading rebellion. In spite of this, how- 
ever, Trajan was compelled to beat a hasty retreat 
and to acknowledge that his power over these East- 
ern provinces was little better than a rope of sand : 
nay, what must have grieved him more than any- 
thing else, he had to submit to a humiliating repulse 

by Claudius. Coins of this place exist with the name of Niniva 
Claudiopolis, under the emperors Trajan, Maximinus, Severus, 
Alexander, Mamaea, and Gordianus Pius (Num. I Chron. xix. 1). 
Tacitus and Ammianus also notice it. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 147 

by the rude Arabs of Hatra, his troops being unable 
or unwilling to force their way, though their engines 
had breached its walls. In the next year, a.d. 117, 
Trajan died, and his successor, Hadrian, deeming 
his conquests impolitic, at once forbore extending 
the Eastern frontiers of the empire. Hadrian, in 
fact, voluntarily relinquished the three provinces 
Trajan's Parthian war had added to the empire. 
"Rome, therefore," as Professor Rawlinson re- 
marks, " gained nothing by the great exertions she 
had made, unless it were a partial recovery of her 
lost influence in Armenia." 

The next direct conflict between the Romans and 
the Parthians in the reign of Vologases III., is so 
far worthy of record that it is the first occasion in 
which a Roman army had been completely success- 
ful in its invasion : it is also noteworthy that the 
general who accomplished this feat seems to have 
acted on his own authority, and without any direct 
orders from Rome. The circumstances were these : 
a petty war had arisen, owing to the raid of the 
Alani into the province of Cappadocia, which had 
been, however, crushed for the time by the historian, 
Arrian, then its Prefect. But a little later, about 
the year a.d. 161, the war became more general, 
Parthian troops having crossed the Euphrates, and 
pushed on through Syria, into Palestine. To meet 
these invaders, the young, pleasure-loving and in- 
competent Verus was sent from Rome to take the 
chief command, but associated with him were able 
officers, the ablest being Avidius Cassius. This 



148 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

officer had at first a difficult task before him, but, at 
length, in a.d. 163, he routed the Parthian king in 
a great battle at Europus, and drove him across the 
Euphrates. Nor was he slow to follow up his first 
success. Having won another considerable battle 
near Susa, he besieged, took, and burnt Seleucia on 
the right bank of the Tigris, and occupied Ctesi- 
phon on the left. Thence, still advancing, he 
crossed the Zagros, and, seizing part of Media, ena- 
bled his imperial masters to add to their already as- 
sumed titles of "Armeniacus" and "Parthicus," 
the new one of "Medicus." 

Parthia was thus for the time completely humbled; 
yet had cause for abundant rejoicing in the fate that 
ultimately befell her invaders. In Babylonia a dis- 
ease, alike unwonted and wasting, was contracted 
by the soldiers ; a scourge, indeed, so terrible that 
their deaths were numbered by thousands; and, 
what was worse, the survivors, on their homeward 
march, carried the infection with them, till the 
pestilence had swept over Italy and reached even the 
shores of the Atlantic Ocean. If Eutropius can be 
believed, nearly one-half of the whole population 
and almost all the Roman army were carried off by 
it. Yet by this war, fatal as it had been to the con- 
querors, a province of Parthia, that between the 
Euphrates and the Khabur, became Roman, and was 
long held by the emperors as part of the Roman 
territory. The struggle ended in a.d. 165, and, 
though Vologases survived another twenty-five years, 
he did not make any effective effort to recover the 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I49 

ground he had lost. Indeed, the Parthian system 
was now on its decline, and the time was fast matur- 
ing for the substitution in its place of a revived re- 
ligion. The next time we find the Parthians at war 
with Rome was, when, on the death of Commodus, 
the empire was claimed by Pescennius Niger, Clo- 
dius Albinus, and Severus, respectively. During 
these disturbances, the Parthians naturally gave their 
aid where it was likely to be most damaging to the 
Roman empire ; probably caring little enough which 
individual became emperor, so only he entered on 
his government with diminished forces and strength, 
In the progress of these commotions, Sept. Severus 
marched twice across Mesopotamia; in his second 
expedition, perhaps hoping to surpass Trajan, he 
built a fleet in the upper country, and captured the 
great cities of Babylon, Seleucia, and Ctesiphon. 
But here his successes ended. In spite of his usual 
care, supplies began to be scarce, and Severus felt 
the necessity of falling back ere a greater calamity 
should befall him. As the country along the Eu- 
phrates had been entirely exhausted, Severus retired 
along the banks of the Tigris ; on his way, however, 
meeting with a repulse at Hatra, not unlike that 
which had befallen Trajan, and which completely 
tarnished all his previous victories. Hatra was, at 
that time, reputed to be full of treasure, so the 
covetous emperor resolved to plunder it, in return, 
as he pretended, for the aid the people had given to 
his rival Niger. The place, though small, was sur- 
rounded by a solid wall, on which the Roman en- 



I50 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

gines made little impression ; the people were brave 
and skilful archers ; moreover had a body of cavalry 
who cut to pieces the Roman foraging parties. The 
result was that they withstood two sieges, the last of 
twenty days ; till, at length, Severus was compelled 
to retire, with his army demoralized and suffering 
from diseases, the natural effect of a march during 
the hottest season of the year, with an inadequate 
supply of wholesome food. His troops, indeed, we 
are told, openly refused to obey his orders, and 
shrunk from the actual assault, though the breach 
was deemed practicable. 

But, though Severus failed to reduce Hatra, there 
can be no doubt that, on the whole, his expedition 
was glorious for Rome, as by it another province 
was taken from the Parthians ; in fact he not only 
recovered Rome's former position in Mesopotamia, 
but, by crossing the Tigris, secured also the fertile 
tract of Adiabene between the northern Zab and 
the Adhem. By this advance he established the 
Roman power within less than seventy miles of the 
Parthian capital, and provided means for an easy 
descent, when necessary, upon the still greater cities 
of Babylon and Seleucia. During the whole of this 
prolonged conflict in Mesopotamia we do not hear 
of any Parthian resistance, and must therefore sup- 
pose either that Vologases IV., had not the power to 
interfere, or that his people no longer possessed the 
enthusiastic bravery of their more youthful empire. 

On his death, about a.d. 209, and for the next 
seventeen or eighteen years preceding the revolt of 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 151 

the Persians, it is clear from the coins that his two 
sons, Artabanus and Vologases were reigning, though 
it is impossible to say with certainty over what parts 
of the country. As the Roman writers, after the 
year a.d. 215, speak of Artabanus only, and give this 
name to the last Parthian king, it may be presumed 
that in him was vested the chief power, and that he, 
at all events, was the personage whom the Western 
nations recognized as the chief ruler. There is little 
of interest to notice in these years, except a strange 
and almost ludicrous proposal on the part of Cara- 
calla, to wed a Parthian princess, with the view of 
dividing the conquest of the whole world between 
Rome and Parthia. "The Roman infantry," said 
he, " is the best in the world, and, in steady, hand- 
to-hand fighting, must be allowed to be unrivalled. 
The Parthians surpass all nations in the number of 
their cavalry and in the excellence of their archers." 
There seems some doubt as to the reply Artabanus 
made, and Dio and Herodian differ on this point. 
It is, however, certain that Caracalla went as a friend 
with his army to Ctesiphon, and then, with charac- 
teristic treachery, fell on the unsuspecting Parthians, 
plundered and ravaged their territory, and returned 
to Mesopotamia laden with his ill-gotten spoil. The 
"common enemy of mankind," as Gibbon justly 
calls him, then disgraced the Roman name still fur- 
ther, by a wanton act of barbarity and insult, the 
destruction of the graves of the Parthian royal 
family, for ages preserved at Arbela. Not long 
after Caracalla was murdered, and his successor, 



152 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Macrinus, found himself at once opposed to a vast 
host, collected by Artabanus to avenge the insults 
his country had received from Caracalla. A pro- 
longed battle of three days ensued near Nisibis, in 
which, having been completely worsted, Macrinus 
was compelled to restore the captives and booty car- 
ried off by Caracalla, and to purchase for something 
like a million and a half of our money, an igno- 
minious peace with his great Asiatic rival. Thus 
ended the last conflict between Rome and Parthia ; 
and, within a brief period, ended also the illustrious 
dynasty of the Arsacidse by the death of Artabanus, 
a.d. 226, on the revolt of the Persians under Artax- 
erxes or Ardashir, of the house of Sassan, whence 
they derived their historical title of Sassanidse. Pro- 
fessor Rawlinson well remarks of the Arsacidae, 
"The race itself does not seem to have become ex- 
hausted. Its chiefs, the successive occupants of the 
throne, never sank into mere weaklings or faineants ; 
never shut themselves up in their seraglios or ceased 
to take a leading part alike in civil broils and in 
struggles with foreign rivals." It is, however, pro- 
bable that their troops had ceased to be what they 
had been under the great early monarchs of the 
house, while there can be no question that their 
original empire, as created by Mithradates and 
others, had been much reduced. 

Hyrcania, as we have seen, had revolted so early 
as a.d. 78, and, as far as we know, had maintained 
its own from that time, while the Romans had secured 
two at least of the most valuable of the western pro- 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 53 

vinces of Parthia. Nor, indeed, did Rome altogether 
lose her prestige by the loss of the great battle of 
Nisibis, for, immediately after this action, Artabanus, 
in his treaty with Macrinus, surrendered the old Par- 
thian province of Mesopotamia. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Sassanidae — Ardashir I. — Shahpiir I. — Valerian — Odsenathus— 
Varahranll. — Tiridates of Armenia — Galerius — Narses — Shah- 
pur II. — Julian III. — Finiz I. — Nushirwan — Mauricius — Khosni 
II. — Heraclius — Muhammed — Yezdigird III. — Muhammedan 
Conquest — Sassanian Monuments at Nakhsh-i-Rustam — 
Nakhsh-i-Regib — Shahpiir — Takht-i-Bostan — Mr. Thomas's in- 
terpretation of the inscriptions at Hajiabdd. 

It is not easy to determine from such documents 
as have come down to us, all the motives that led to 
the Sassanian revolt, but the attentive student will 
observe abundant inducements for any man of real 
ability to take up arms against the then existing au- 
thorities and system. Indeed, there can be little 
doubt that there had long rankled in the hearts of 
the Persian people a hatred of their Arsacidan go- 
vernors, though there was nothing especially oppres- 
sive in their rule, while they were, perhaps from in- 
difference, generally tolerant in religious matters : 
moreover, in the earlier times, perhaps always, they 
had permitted the existence of native rulers over the 
province of Persis, which implies the recognition to 
some extent of the native manners and customs. 

Yet at all periods the Persians must have resented 

their exclusion from the higher offices of the state, 

which the Arsacidse jealously maintained for their 

own families and immediate followers ; while they 

154 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 55 

may also have felt that a nation, who had given to 
the world a Cyrus and a Darius, deserved some spe- 
cial pre-eminence. The Parthians could have had 
no inherent claim to the exclusive rule of Western 
Asia, and must, therefore, always have maintained 
their position by the mere force of arms : on the 
other hand, the Magi, as representing the faith of 
Zoroaster, would have had but little influence in 
Parthia, even if they had not been repressed by the 
strong arm of the civil power. 

Again, the effect of the battle of Nisibis, though 
one of victory to the Arsacidse, must really have been 
a source of weakness to them, or Artabanus would 
have at once followed it up by the destruction of 
Macrinus' army rather than by the cession of Meso- 
potamia to the Romans. It is further note-worthy 
that Moses of Chorene remarks that, at the same 
time, two princes of the house of Arsaces, who dwelt 
in Bactria, were at feud with the reigning monarch. 

It has been supposed by some that the Ardashir 
who raised the standard of revolt was himself a 
Magus, and therefore directly bound to exert himself 
to the utmost in the defence of his own faith. On 
the other hand, Herodian asserts that he was at the 
time the tributary ruler of Persis. The early writers 
as Gibbon, and Malcolm, have taken the former 
view, Professor Rawlinson the latter. Perhaps all 
that is really certain on this subject is, that he was 
the son of a certain Sassan, and that his revolt 
against the Arsacidse in Persis dates from about 
a.d. 220. 



156 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Before, however, I proceed to give some account 
of the principal Sassanian rulers, it is necessary to 
make a few remarks on their connection and deal- 
ings with the different populations with whom, during 
the 400 years of their dominion, they came in con- 
tact : bearing always in mind the fact, that the Per- 
sians claimed to be pure Iranians of the great Indo- 
European stock, though, doubtless, a good deal 
mixed with the non-Aryans (or Turanians), who 
dwelt around them. Unluckily, we have but few 
materials for the early part of their history. Native 
or contemporary chronicles there are none ; and the 
later writers of Armenia or Constantinople are the 
records of enemies; the Armenians in those days 
always so, the Greeks generally. Yet to the latter we 
must trust entirely for the first hundred years and 
more, though, with this advantage, that some of 
them, like Ammianus and Procopius, took part in 
the scenes they describe ; moreover, both of these, 
as well as Theophylact Simocatta, are on the whole, 
trustworthy. 

On the other hand, though Armenian literature in 
any form did not commence till the fourth century 
a.d., as the old Armenians (the present people are 
Iranians who have forgotten their parentage) lived, 
from Achsemenian times, nearer to Persia than any 
other nation, it is reasonable to expect that from 
even their comparatively late writings, some names 
hitherto misconceived may be explained. Thus, I 
have already pointed out how the Greek writers 
generally assume that Surena or Surenas, was the 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 157 

title of the chief general under the monarch himself, 
if not his own second title; while the Armenian 
writers declare it was really the name of one of the 
great Arsacidan families who preserved their tradi- 
tional lineage long after the empire had passed from 
their house. We meet with other and similar great 
families, as the Aspahapats (the Ispehebids of the 
seventh and eighth centuries), and the Mihrans. 

Other points worthy of notice, as explanatory of 
many confused passages in the history of the wars 
between the Greeks and the Persians, are the certain, 
clear, and definite objects every Sassanian ruler kept 
constantly before his eyes. These were, speaking 
generally, to extend the boundaries of the Persian 
empire to the west of the Euphrates; to weaken, 
whenever opportunity occurred, Armenia, as the 
northern frontier and the key of Persia, held as this 
state was at that period, by a population at variance 
from the Persians in creed and race ; to prevent the 
progress of Christianity, not alone in their own do- 
minions, but in the provinces adjacent to them ; and 
to spread, by all possible means, the pure faith of 
Zoroaster, as distinguished from nature worship on 
one side and Christianity on the other. These prin- 
ciples borne in mind explain much of the subsequent 
history of this people. Thus, when Armenia was in 
league with the Byzantine Court, the Persians gene- 
rally turned their arms against her, and less rarely 
into the provinces of the west and south : on the 
other hand, when Armenia and Persia were allied 
and friendly, or the former subject to the latter, the 



I58 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

war was centralized in Mesopotamia or extended into 
Asia Minor, the northern frontiers of Persia being 
then secure. In every instance we find the Persians 
endeavoring to make sure of Armenia, and unwilling 
to join in wars distant from their own centre till they 
had complete control over the frontier mountains. 

Again in their dealings with Christianity the Per- 
sian rulers were characteristically perfidious ; and if 
fair and open enmity did not succeed, rarely scru- 
pled to adopt any other means to sap its foundations. 
As is well known, the Greek Church from the fourth 
to the end of the sixth century, was rent by every 
form of controversy and religious fanaticism, fol- 
lowed as these are invariably by the bitter religious 
animosities ; the emperors themselves had their 
share, too, in many of these quarrels, while oecume- 
nical councils failed to reduce the factions to unity, 
often, perhaps, because the distances were so great 
and intercommunication so difficult. All these were 
sources of division among the Christians, and sources, 
too, of weakness ; and the Persian rulers fostered 
both and profited by both; their object being to 
give their utmost support to any sect in arms against 
the orthodoxy of Constantinople. Thus, when the 
Nestorians were ejected from the schools of Edessa, 
they found a hearty welcome among the Sassanians 
of Persia; Firuz, the then monarch, seizing, in their 
behalf, the episcopal chair of Ctesiphon, the seat of 
the Patriarch of Assyria and Persia; while many 
other bishoprics shortly after fell into his hands, till 
nearly all Persia was Nestorianized. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 59 

In fact, the ordinary system of Persia gave full 
toleration to any creeds at variance with that of 
Constantinople, and, perhaps, in this aspect only, 
had any bond of union with the Armenians. Yet 
it must be admitted that Persian notions of tolera- 
tion were meagre in kind and seldom long enduring. 
It was rare for even Nestorian Christianity to escape 
without persecution, except for some temporary poli- 
tical reason. Even the king of Persia, Kobad, lost 
his throne for embracing the views of Mazdak, and 
Mani (the author of Manicheism) was executed in 
Persia for inventing a mixed system of Zoroastrian- 
ism and Christianity. Again, in the same spirit, 
in which they used their utmost power to prevent 
the increase of converts to true and orthodox Chris- 
tianity, the early Persian monarchs labored hard to 
collect together the scattered fragments of the Zend- 
avesta and of other works believed to embody Zoro- 
astrian doctrines, and to set up on high abundant 
fire altars, the living memorials of their ancient 
faith. To the same end, they re-introduced Pehlevi 
as the Court language, re-constituted the body-guards 
called the "immortals," and, having somewhere 
found the old Darafsh-i-kawani, again set it up as 
the banner of their renewed empire. Even the 
royal names of many of their most distinguished 
monarchs were taken directly from heroes recorded 
in the Zend-avesta, such as Ardashir, Khosur, Ko- 
bad, Varahran, and Ormazd. 

We have stated that Ardashir probably took up 
arms about a.d. 220, and naturally, his first effort 



l6o HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

was to establish his authority in Persis,* and thence 
to conquer the adjacent and thinly-peopled district 
of Caramania or Kirman, and ultimately Media. 
This last onslaught was perhaps induced by the be- 
lief that the Medians and Bactrians had given shelter 
to the two princes of the house of Arsaces to whom 
we have already alluded. 

It would seem that, for some time, Artabanus 
made no attempt to put down the rebels ; he now, 
however, marched an army into Persis, but was de- 
feated in three great battles, and in the last, accord- 
ing to Malcolm, fought in the plain of Hormuz, 
between Bekahan and Sinister, he lost his life and 
crown, a.d. 226. By degrees all the provinces of 
the old Parthian empire fell into the hands of Arda- 
shir, who, to give the color of legitimacy to his new 
empire, is said to have married an Arsacide princess,f 

* I have noticed before, that owing to the position of Mesene 
(for many years under its own kings), the Parthians were never 
able for long to keep a navy afloat on the waters of the Persian 
Gulf. Owing to this circumstance a considerable commerce had 
sprung up with India on the one side and Petra on the other, 
during the first two centuries of our era. To secure, therefore 
this province was a necessity for Ardashir I., and one of his first 
operations was to build in Mesene, according to Hamzah of Is- 
pahan (who wrote in the tenth century), a number of towns for 
commercial or naval purposes. One of these (rather rebuilt than 
built) was Forath-Maisan, a name, probably, recalling that of the 
old province, Mesene. It was the obvious policy of the petty 
kings of Mesene to be as neutral as possible in the wars between 
Rome and Parthia, seeing that they had in their hands so large a 
portion of the commerce of the Persian Gulf. 

-j- It is right to add that coins exist of a certain Artavasdes, bear- 
ing the date of A.D. 227, but we have no clear evidence where he 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. l6l 

The reign of Ardashir (sometimes called Babekan) 
was brilliant and successful. He was able to unite 
and to consolidate the various fragments of his em- 
pire ; to contend with varying success against the 
Romans under Severus Alexander and to establish in 
its purity Zoroastrianism in opposition to the nature 
worship of the Arsacides.* The coins of the Sas- 
sanian dynasty, which abound, completely confirm 
the testimony of history. On all of them, we find 
the symbols of fire worship, the altar and his at- 
tendant priests, their legends being no longer in 
Greek, as those of the Arsacidae, but in the ancient 
language of Persia. 

Ardashir was succeeded by his son, Shahpur I. 
(a.d. 240), who worthily carried out his father's 
schemes. After a -brief war with an Arabian chief 
who had, during his absence in Khorassan, seized 
Jezireh (Mesopotamia), and fortified himself in the 
fortress of Al Hathr (Hatra), which had, as we have 
seen, already successfully defied the arms of Trajan 
and Severus, he passed on to Nisibis, carrying terror 
and devastation into the Roman provinces on the 

reigned. In the northern districts, it appears from the Armenian 
chronicles, that the struggle was prolonged for some time, Khosru, 
the then king of Armenia, having raised an army of Georgians and 
Huns, with whom he devastated Assyria as far south as Ctesiphon. 
Khosni is said to have been victorious for ten years. On his 
murder, in A.D. 252, the Arsacidan rule in Armenia finally ended. 
* Gibbon has further stated (though he does not quote his au- 
thority) that Ardashir was recognized in a solemn assembly at 
Balkh. If so, he must have subdued Bactria, but strictly speak- 
ing, this province was not absorbed into Persia till the reign of 
Julian, 130 years later. 
L 



1 62 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Euphrates and Tigris. The siege of Nisibis was 
long and tedious, but, at length, according to Per- 
sian writers, Heaven heard the prayers of their de- 
vout emperor, and the walls of the city, like those 
of Jericho, yielded to religious influence what they 
had refused to military genius. Pursuing his con- 
quests, Carrhae fell before his victorious arms, and, 
shortly afterwards, in a great battle between him and 
the aged Valerian, the Roman emperor was himself 
taken prisoner near Edessa, a.d. 260, together with 
a large part of his army.* It is not certain what 
became of Valerian, and the stories of his cruel 
treatment by Shahpur are probably exaggerated ; but 
on the sculptures at the ruins of Shahpur near Ka- 
zerun, and at Nakhsh-i-Rustam, which we shall de- 
scribe bye and bye, we have, unquestionably, a 
native record of what the Persian ruler rightly 
deemed the chief glory of his reign. On these 
sculptures the position of the figures indicates the 
complete humbling of the Romans. 

But a day of retribution was at hand. Odsena- 
thus, prince of Palmyra, whose magnificent presents 
Shahpur had rejected with disdain in the hour of his 
triumph, collected a small army from the villages of 

* Trebellius Pollio has preserved a haughty letter from Shahpur 
to his allies and vassals, and the curious replies of three of them 
(Hist. August. Script.). In this war, the kings of Bactria, Albania 
(Georgia), and of Chersonesus Taurica, warned the Roman gen- 
erals to keep their forces together, as, if so, they would join them 
against Shahpur ; but any advice recommending a spirited course 
of action would have failed of recognition by such a ruler as Gal- 
lienus. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 163 

Syria and the tents of the desert, and attacking the 
Persian army, laden with booty from the sack of 
Caesarea, routed it in several engagements, and fol- 
lowed it nearly to the walls of Ctesiphon. "By 
this exploit," says Gibbon, " Odsenathus laid the 
foundation of his future fame and fortunes. The 
majesty of Rome, oppressed by a Persian, was pro- 
tected by a Syrian or an Arab of Palmyra. ' ' The 
reigns of his immediate successors, Hormazd I. and 
Varahran I., leave nothing worthy of record, ex- 
cept, perhaps, the destruction of Mani or Manes, 
the celebrated founder of the Manichsean heresy, by 
the zealous followers of Zoroaster. The religion of 
which Mani professed himself the founder, if not 
the inspired prophet, appears to have been a mixture 
of the Hindu doctrine of metempsychosis, of the 
principles of good and evil, and of Christianity. 
He was fond of claiming for himself the name of 
Paraclete, and of asserting that he was the promised 
" Comforter." 

In the reign of the second Varahran, the Roman 
arms were successful under Carus, who, rejecting the 
offers of the Persian ambassadors, crossed with his 
victorious forces the whole of Mesopotamia, and (in 
this superior, alike, to Trajan and Severus) captured 
both Seleucia and Ctesiphon ; nor would he have pro- 
bably stayed his hand till all Persia was at his feet, 
had his career not been arrested by a thunder-storm, 
in or by which he himself lost his life. Gibbon (from 
Synesius) gives a picturesque story of the visit of 
Persian ambassadors to the Roman camp, and tells 



164 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

us how they found the old emperor seated on the 
grass, scarcely distinguishable by a richer dress from 
the soldiers around him, with his supper before him 
of a piece of stale bacon and a few hard peas. Taking 
off a cap he wore to cover or conceal his baldness, 
the Roman emperor bid them assure their master 
that unless he at once acknowledged the superiority 
of Rome " he would render Persia as naked of trees 
as his own head was destitute of hair."* 

Somewhat later, in the reign of Narses, a war of 
greater and more important dimensions took place, 
some details of which must be given, as throwing 
considerable light on the policy of the Roman and 
Persian leaders respectively. We have already stated 
that the Persians were ever anxious to secure either 
the actual possession of the adjoining province of 
Armenia, or to be at least on friendly terms with it, 
the Romans, on the other hand, being equally de- 
sirous of aiding the native tribes as a set off against 
the constant hostility of the Persians. Thus, during 
the reign of Valerian, Armenia had been seized by 
the Persians, and its monarch slain ; his youthful 
son, however, Tiridates, escaped to Rome, where, 
acquiring many arts he could not have learned in 
Armenia, he soon showed himself worthy of his 
teachers. Of great courage and personal strength, 
even Olympia recognized him a victor in one of its 
games. But Tiridates was more than a mere soldier ; 
he was grateful to those with whom he had passed 
his long exile; moreover, Licinius, the intimate 

* See also Vopiscus, ap. Hist. August. Script. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 165 

friend and constant companion of Galerius, owed 
his life to the personal prowess of Tiridates : hence, 
when Galerius was associated in the empire by Dio- 
cletian, the investiture of the distinguished Arme- 
nian, as the restored king of his native land, was an 
act as natural as it was wise. 

On his return to Armenia, Tiridates was univer- 
sally received with the greatest joy, the rule of the 
Persians during the previous twenty-six years having 
been marked by the tyranny the usual accompani- 
ment of their government. Thus, though they erected 
many buildings of splendor, the money for them had 
been wrung from the hard hands of the Armenian 
peasantry ; the religion of Zoroaster had been rigor- 
ously enforced, and the statues of the deified kings 
of Armenia, with the sacred images of the sun and 
moon, had been broken in pieces by the conquerors. 
At first, all went well with Tiridates, and he expelled 
the aggressive Persians from Armenia ; but here his 
career was arrested, and the restored king of Arme- 
nia, though a soldier of renown, had, after the loss 
of a great battle, to take refuge for a second time 
with his Roman friends, involving as this did, al- 
most necessarily, a new war with Persia, to avenge 
alike the wrongs of Tiridates and the injured majes- 
ty of Rome. 

To direct the whole force of the empire against 
the Persian ruler, Diocletian himself took up his 
abode at Antioch, while the command of the legions 
was given to the intrepid Galerius, for this purpose 
summoned from the banks of the Danube. But his 



1 66 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

former bravery did not here avail him, not impossi- 
bly because the troops he had with him were of an 
inferior quality, a force gathered chiefly from the 
enervated denizens of the oriental towns or from the 
yet more unwarlike natives of Asia Minor. In the 
third, it would seem, of three battles, the army of 
Galerius, worn out by the heat and want of water, 
was surrounded and destroyed by the Persians in the 
great plain below Carrhge, on nearly the same ground 
which had before witnessed the death of Crassus and 
the overthrow of his legions. Tiridates, after fight- 
ing to the last, saved his life by swimming the Eu- 
phrates, and Galerius, in great disgrace, returned to 
Diocletian. Nor did he escape without a public 
chastisement of his misfortune. " The haughtiest of 
men," says Gibbon, "clothed in his purple, but 
humbled by the sense of his fault and misfortunes, 
was obliged to follow the emperor's chariot above a 
mile on foot, and to exhibit before the whole Court 
the spectacle of his disgrace." 

But neither Diocletian nor Galerius were men to 
remain long quiet under unavenged wrongs. An 
army having been rapidly collected, this time from 
the tried veterans of Illyria, aided by Gothic auxil- 
iaries in Imperial pay, Galerius again crossed the Eu- 
phrates, and, avoiding the heats of the plain coun- 
tries by clinging to the friendly mountains of Arme- 
nia, secured, in this way, ground especially favorable 
for his most important arm, his infantry. His plans 
were crowned with success. A night attack, gene- 
rally fatal as these are to Eastern forces, surprised 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 167 

the Persians with their horses tied up, and ended in 
the total defeat of Narses. All his baggage, includ- 
ing his wives and children, fell into the hands of the 
Roman general, who, emulating the example of 
Alexander, treated them with the respect due to 
their age, sex, and dignity. 

The result was a conference between the emperors 
and the Persian ambassador at Nisibis, with the view 
of arranging a treaty which it was hoped would 
secure peace for a long time. Both sides were indeed 
weary of war : Diocletian was only anxious to pre- 
serve the limits of the Roman empire, as suggested 
by Augustus and acted on by Hadrian, while the 
Persian ambassador pointed out that the Roman and 
Persian empires were the two "eyes of the world," 
which would remain imperfect and mutilated, if 
either of them was put out. The treaty, at length 
signed, ceded to Rome Mesopotamia and the moun- 
tains of the Carduchi (now Kurdistan), with the 
right to nominate the kings of Iberia; while, at the 
same time the boundaries of the kingdom of Arme- 
nia were restored and enlarged. The acknowledged 
equity of the grounds on which this treaty rested, 
secured a peace of forty years for the Eastern em- 
pire, and, at the close of the war, Diocletian and 
Maximian celebrated at Rome their successes and 
those of their lieutenants, by a triumph, the last that 
Rome ever witnessed. Indeed, as Gibbon justly 
remarks, "soon after this time, the emperors ceased 
to vanquish, and Rome ceased to be the capital of 
the empire." 



1 68 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Into the legendary history of the great ruler who 
followed, Shahpiir II. (a.d. 310-380), we need not 
enter, nor need we discuss the question whether the 
diadem he wore, much to his country's advantage, 
for the unusual period of seventy years, was actually 
prepared for him by a submissive nobility, while he 
was yet an unborn baby. They who care for such 
matters, may consult the Zeenat-al-Tuarikh, or Sir 
J. Malcolm's abridgement of it. Suffice it to say, 
that, when scarcely more than a boy, Shahpiir made 
strenuous resistance to the Greeks, Tatars and Arabs, 
who, relying on his youth and inexperience, in- 
vaded his empire; thus showing, from the very first, 
the metal of which he was made. Collecting his 
forces, we are told, that he marched against the 
Arabs, drove them out of his country, and chasing 
them across the Arabian desert to Yathreb, massa- 
cred every one he met. From the peculiar punish- 
ment he invented to create terror among these wild 
tribes, he obtained his distinguishing name of Zu'- 
laktaf, or ''Lord of the shoulders."* From Hedjaz 
he carried his arms into Syria, and turning north- 
ward, swept the whole country to the gates of 
Aleppo ere he returned to Ctesiphon. The presence 

* Mirkhond says he was only sixteen, and that, in this war, he 
completely secured all the lower end of Babylonia and crossing 
the sea by Al Cathif, put to the sword many of the people of Bah- 
rein and Hedjdz and of the tribe of Temin. It is clear, there- 
fore, that St. Martin was wrong in supposing that the Sassanians 
did not conquer Mesene till A.D. 389. As we shall see this date 
(a.d. 326) agrees well with the narrative in Ammianus of the fatal 
inarch of Julian thirty-seven years later. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 69 

of such a foe awakened the fast declining spirit of 
the Romans, yet, during the later days of the reign 
of Constantine the prudence of Shahpur prevented 
an open rupture. 

With the death of Constantine matters changed, 
and the despot of the East conceived himself bound 
to repress the despot of the West. Five provinces 
had been ceded to Rome after the peace of Galerius, 
and these he felt it his duty to recover, by treaty, if 
possible ; if not, by force of arms. The disturbed 
state of the Western Empire favored his views ; the 
legions were corrupt and lacked the firm grasp of 
the veteran emperor; the great Tiridates, after a 
reign of fifty-six years, was no more, though, by be- 
coming a Christian shortly before his death, he had 
strengthened the link that bound Armenia to Con- 
stantinople. Still a large faction remained in Ar- 
menia who, misliking the change of life Christianity 
demanded, were ready to aid Shahpur, though with 
the certain suppression of their own political inde- 
pendence. Hence, the might of Shahpur, soon 
overcame Chosroes, the puny successor of Tiridates, 
and hence, too, the siege by the Persian of Nisibis 
and his occupation of great part of Mesopotamia. 
Yet it must not be supposed that the Romans tamely 
succumbed to the rising power of the Persians. So 
far from it, it is clear that the son and successor of 
Constantine, Constantius, did his best to secure the 
frontier of his empire from the incessant inroads of 
their light horse. Details in these matters are want- 
ing, and accounts vary ; but it seems certain that, 



I'JO HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

of nine bloody fields, in two of which Constantius 
commanded in person, the general result was in 
favor of the Persian. 

Of these, the most memorable was the battle of 
Singara, in which, as long as daylight lasted, the 
Persians failed to hold their own against the Roman 
veterans, who forced their camp : but the following 
night told a different tale. In the silence of that 
night, Shahpur drew together his forces, many of 
which had been watching the action of the previous 
day on secure heights, and falling on the Roman 
troops, dispersed here and there and rejoicing in the 
plunder of the Persian camp, cut them to pieces, 
with an incredible slaughter. The end therefore, 
of the battle of Singara, though it was victorious at 
its commencement, was the entire rout and destruc- 
tion of the army of Constantius. Yet the Persian, 
superior in the plain, where he had ample room to 
manoeuvre his chief arm, cavalry, failed as surely 
when he had to besiege a fortified town ; hence he 
was forced to raise the siege of Nisibis, with a loss, 
it is said, of 20,000 men. Moreover, as he was, 
about the same time, invaded from the North by the 
Massagetae, he thought it as well to patch up a hasty 
peace with Constantius, who, at the same time, was 
nothing loath to do so, as, by the death of his two 
brothers, he was involved in a civil contest demand- 
ing the utmost exertion of his undivided strength. 
The rulers of the East and the West, were, as it 
happened, at almost the same time, though at a dis- 
tance of more than two thousand miles, engaged in 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 171 

repelling, as best they could, the impetuous on- 
slaught of the barbarians of the North. If Shahpur 
had his Massagetse to deal with, Constantius found 
an equal foe in the Sarmatians. 

At the conclusion of these two wars, an attempt 
to establish a treaty between the rival emperors, 
which Constantius seems to have been really anxious 
to effect, was frustrated by an adventurer named An- 
toninus, and Shahpur, unfolding his standards, 
crossed the head waters of the Euphrates in another 
invasion of Asia Minor. Finding most of the forti- 
fied towns well prepared to resist him, he wisely, for 
a time, kept aloof from needless sieges, yet was he 
tempted, in a moment of rashness, to attempt that 
of Amida, and, though successful, lost the flower of 
his army, indeed, if the historians of the time can 
be credited, so large a number as 30,000 men. In 
fact, the actual result of a campaign, which was to 
have suppressed the Roman power in the East, was 
limited to the reduction of the two fortified towns 
of Singara and Bezabde. Nor indeed did the late 
return of Constantius himself to the scene do any 
thing towards redeeming the waning reputation of 
Rome ; especially as he failed with disgrace to re- 
cover the captured Bezabde, though its walls were 
repeatedly shaken by the most powerful battering 
rams then available. But Shahpur was now too op- 
posed by a new emperor ; who, had he had know- 
ledge comparable with his energy, might have won 
back for Rome nearly all she had lost. In Julian, 
many hoped, perhaps some thought, the best times 



172 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

of Rome were returning, and Shahpur at once made 
overtures of peace to him, but in vain. 

Of this strange genius, yet most remarkable man, 
we have not space to say much ; but this is clear, 
that, to a mind deeply devoted to the philosophic 
fancies of his age, he added the most burning desire 
to distinguish himself as a military leader. Indeed, 
he seems to have felt himself a second Alexander. 
"The successor of Cyrus and of Artaxerxes," says 
Gibbon, " was the only rival he had deemed worthy 
of his arms, and he resolved by a final conquest of 
Persia, to chastise the haughty nation, which had 
so long resisted and insulted the majesty of Rome. ' ' 
In his "Csesares," Julian himself remarks, "Alex- 
ander reminds his rival, Caesar, who depreciated the 
fame and the merit of an Asiatic victory, that Crassus 
and Antony had felt the Persian arrows; and that 
the Romans, in a war of three hundred years, had 
not yet subdued a single province of Mesopotamia 
or Assyria." 

But, except in zeal, and we are bound to add, in 
personal courage, Julian altogether lacked the ability 
for carrying out the schemes he had proposed to 
himself, while he had to deal with a population cor- 
rupted by wealth and luxury, and was himself, from 
his change of religion, inimical to many whom he 
might otherwise have conciliated. It is certain too, 
that Julian had, by a strange want of judgment, 
greatly alienated the affections of those on whom he 
had chiefly to rely. Thus at Antioch, we learn that, 
during a season of scarcity, he adopted the dan- 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 173 

gerous plan of fixing by authority, the value of corn, 
and when this corn was bought up, as it was sure to 
be by a few wealthy speculators, consigned to prison 
the whole of the senators of that city, 200 in number. 
It is no matter of surprise, therefore, that with such 
causes of dissension at home, Julian was worse than 
usually prepared to attack such an enemy as he who 
then held the sceptre of the Persians. Early in 
March a.d. 363, Julian took the field from Antioch, 
and passing Berrhoea and Hierapolis, advanced at 
once to Carrhae, the neighborhood of which had 
been already fatal to two Roman armies. There, 
with a singular want of generalship dividing his 
army, he left Procopius to secure the upper waters 
of the Tigris, while he himself took the line of the 
Euphrates ; a plan, which, for its success, depended 
much on the support of the king of Armenia, who, 
it is said, was not over-pleased with some injudicious 
letters he had received from Julian. 

Following the course of the Euphrates, Julian 
arrived in a month at Circesium (Carchemish), the 
extreme limit of the Roman dominions, one division 
of his army being under the command of a certain 
Hormazd, who, though of the royal blood of Persia, 
had from early youth attached himself to the cause 
of the Romans. In his advance Julian seems to have 
met with little serious resistance, the inhabitants of 
the open towns, for the most part, taking to flight ; 
his rear and flanks, however, suffered incessant an- 
noyance from clouds of mounted Arabs, in the pay 
of Persia, who lost no opportunity of harassing his 



174 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

troops. "The fields of Assyria," says Gibbon, 
"were devoted by Julian to the calamities of war; 
and the philosopher retaliated on a guiltless people the 
acts of rapine and cruelty, which had been com- 
mitted by their haughty master in the Roman pro- 
vinces. The trembling Assyrians summoned the 
rivers to their assistance, and completed with their 
own hands the ruin of their country. ' ' 

But the Romans struggled on, and with undaunted 
perseverance overcame every obstacle ; Perisabor 
and Maozamalcha were taken by hard fighting ; and 
Julian exclaimed with natural pride, "We have now 
provided some materials for the sophist of Antioch" 
(Libanius). In a few days more, the passage of the 
Tigris was forced, and the Persians driven under the 
walls of Ctesiphon. But here, Julian's real difficul- 
ties began ; indeed each Mesopotamian campaign 
seems to repeat the previous one. The defection of 
the king of Armenia and his own incapacity had 
prevented Procopius from joining the Emperor, by 
a parallel march along the Tigris, and Julian was 
forced, though most reluctantly, to give up the siege 
of the great capital of Shahpur ; at the same time, 
rashly burning his boats and fancying himself another 
Alexander, he advanced like a madman, in pursuit 
of the still retreating enemy, giving willing heed to 
every idle tale he could pick up from the Persian 
deserters of the terror his onward march inspired. 
The fate of the Roman army was not long deferred ; 
the Persians gradually closed round them ; food was 
scarce, and the heat intolerable to the hardy warriors 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 175 

of Germany and Gaul ; till, at length, having lost 
thousands of his best troops, Julian was himself slain, 
after a brief but remarkable reign of a year and 
eight months.* His successor, Jovian, accepted 
terms of peace few Roman leaders would have ac- 
knowledged. The five provinces beyond the Tigris, 
ceded by the grandfather of Shahpur, were restored 
by him ; Nisibis and Singara given up ; while a spe- 
cial article required the abandonment for ever by 
the Romans of the kingdom of Armenia. "The 
predecessors of Jovian," adds Gibbon, "had some- 
times relinquished the dominion of distant and un- 
profitable provinces ; but since the foundation of the 
city, the genius of Rome, the god Terminus who 
guarded the boundaries of the Republic, had never 
retired before the sword of a victorious enemy." In 
fact, the treaty assented to by Jovian, gave up nearly 
all that the victories of Galerius had secured. 

Little is known of the history of Shahpur after the 

* Ammianus gives an interesting account of the state of the 
country through which Julian marched, and is mainly supported by 
the narratives of Magnus of Charrse, and of Eutychianus of Cap- 
padocia, who also accompanied Julian (see John Malala). These 
writers all speak of what they call the great canal of the Euphrates, 
and of the dams across the rivers, of which Layard gives such a 
vivid description. With Arrian, they call these dams cataracts, 
a word which Yacut says is of Nabathasan origin. These dams 
were, not to prevent, as Layard thinks, hostile shipping ascending 
the rivers, but rather to keep up a sufficient supply of water for 
irrigation. The great canal is doubtless the JYahar-al-malk which, 
according to Abydenus, was made by Nebuchadnezzar. The 

Greek Armacal is, I supect, but a transposition of the letters of 

the previous word. 



176 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

conclusion of the Roman war, but he is said to have 
contended with doubtful fortune for the possession 
of Armenia, and to have made a fresh irruption into 
the Roman dominions. Finally, in the reign of 
Gratian, he ended his long and glorious reign of 
fully seventy years. 

His two immediate successors, Ardashir II. and 
Shahpur III., did nothing worthy of commemora- 
tion; nor is the third one in succession, Varahran 
IV., famous for anything except as the founder of 
the city of Kirmanshah, and the part-executor of the 
famous sculptures of Takt-i-Bostan, five miles from it. 
The inscriptions still remaining there, first deci- 
phered by De Sacy, leave no doubt that they were 
chiefly made by his order, to perpetuate his own 
name and the glory of Shahpur II. 

The rule of the next emperor, Jezdigird, is vari- 
ously related by the writers of the East and the 
West, the former speaking of him, as an implacable 
and worthless tyrant, the latter as a wise and virtuous 
prince. Perhaps the differing tenor of these reports 
is traceable to the fact that he lived on terms of 
friendship as well as of peace with the Roman Arca- 
dius, who, at his death, declared him the protector 
of his son, Theodosius the Second. As the young 
man grew up, the ties of friendship were strength- 
ened between the two empires, and the influence of 
the Bishop Marathas, the ablest of the ministers of 
Theodosius, was highly beneficial to the Christians, 
who had now become an important body in Persia. 
Hitherto they had been, with some reason, held to 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. IJJ 

be bad subjects, their inclinations leading them to 
support the views of the Christian emperors of Con- 
stantinople ; but, from this charge, the bishop, at 
least during his lifetime, seems to have successfully 
vindicated them. But Persian toleration was rarely 
of long endurance. In the next reign, that of 
Varahran V,* a fierce persecution broke out, though 
the king himself inclined to mercy ; and the then 
Christian prelate having imprudently burnt one of 
the fire temples, the rage of the populace could not 
be restrained, and the bishop and a large number 
of the Christians were put to death with great 
cruelty. The natural result of these excesses was a 
fresh war between the Romans and the Persians, pro- 
longed with various success : as, however, the Per- 
sians on the whole had suffered the most, they were 
willing to accept terms of peace, to which they would 
hardly otherwise have assented. 

About the year a.d. 458, Firuz I., ascended the 
throne, and was soon engaged in a memorable war 
with the Huns, which, after lasting for several years 
and entailing heavy losses on the Persians, was 
finally terminated by his own death and the destruc- 
tion of his army. It was during the latter years of 
the reign of Kobad, and after a series of conflicts 

* The Oriental writers assert that Varahran V. made a voyage 
to India about A.D. 435, and married an Indian princess. If the 
story be true, it is most likely that India means Beluchist&n, or else 
the country at the mouth of the Indus. Varahr&n V. is sometimes 
called Gaur, from his enthusiastic passion for hunting the Gaur, 
or wild ass. 
M 



178 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

between the East and the West, so alike in character 
and result, as to be wearisome in their description, 
that the Romans, to prevent the constant inroads of 
the Persians, founded a new colony at Dara, about 
fourteen miles from Nisibis, with walls of such 
strength as to be impregnable to any machines of 
war their enemies could bring against them. " Dara 
continued more than sixty years," says Gibbon, 
"to fulfil the wishes of its founders, and to provoke 
the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly com- 
plained that this impregnable fortress had been con- 
structed in manifest violation of the treaty of peace 
between the two empires." 

At length, in a.d. 531, Khosrii Nushirwan* was 
chosen emperor, becoming thus the contemporary of 
the great law-maker, Justinian. Nushirwan is still the 
synonym in the mouth of every Persian for wisdom, 
justice and munificence, and could we forget his 
constant perfidy, an evil quality about which his 
subjects are not supposed to have cared much, he 
well deserved a reputation, which even partial his- 
torians have not perhaps rated too highly. He 
found his empire groaning under every kind of 
abuse, among the worst being the prevalence of a 
sect, who, under their leader Mazdac, held the doc- 
trine of community of women, with other practices 

* Abundant myths have grown up around the name of Nushir- 
wan. A proposal is said to have been made in his youth, that he 
should be adopted by the Emperor Justin ; and, that he was 
baptized as a Christiana little before his death, is another story 
about which there is more than doubt. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 179 

which, in recent years, have made Mormonism in- 
tolerable, even in the far West. From the evil 
results of the doctrines promulgated by this vaga- 
bond, Nushirwan gradually relieved his subjects, 
rooting out the delusion by the simple process of 
destroying the prophet and his followers. He then 
restored the bridges, rebuilt towns and villages which 
had fallen into decay, and held out such encourage- 
ment to men of learning, that even the philosophers 
of Greece flocked to his Court. The literature of 
Greece and Rome were collected by his diligence ; 
Aristotle and Plato translated into Persian ; and 
portions of what we now know to have been ori- 
ginally in Sanskrit, as the so-called " Fables of Pil- 
pay," or "Hito-padesa," were brought from India. 
In his first war with Justinian, Nushirwan main- 
tained his superiority by the extortion from the hum- 
bled emperor of eleven thousand pounds of gold,* 
as the price of a perpetual peace ! and, in his later 
reduction of Antioch and Syria (a.d. 540), and in 
the extension of the Persian territories from the 
banks of the Phasis to the Mediterranean, and from 
the Red Sea to the Oxus and Jaxartes, we see abun- 
dant proof of his military genius, or of the weak- 
ness of the Romans. One great general alone with- 
stood his further progress, and the veteran Belisarius, 
recalled from his Western victories, twice arrested 
his onward advance ; thus achieving a success which, 

* The peace so disgracefully purchased from the Persians, ena- 
bled Justinian to carry on his wars with the West, and to reduce 
Carthage, Sicily, and Italy. 



l8o HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

considering the scant means at his disposal and the 
character of the Court he served, must be considered 
remarkable. 

In all the negotiations which took place between 
Justinian and Nushirwan, the latter invariably as- 
sumed the tone of a superior, nor, though his reign 
extended to nearly forty-eight years, and his life to 
more than eighty, do we find his head turned by 
this unusual prosperity. The firmness of his cha- 
racter enabled him to resist the influence of the 
luxury by which he was surrounded ; he neither gave 
himself up to it, nor permitted it in others ; indeed, 
but little before his death, the aged monarch led in 
person his troops to the attack on Dara (a.d. 573), 
with a spirit as active and as daring as he had shown 
in his earliest enterprises. The last days, however, 
of his life, were marked by some failures, the Em- 
peror Justin having yielded to the importunities of 
the Turks, who offered an alliance against the com- 
mon enemy; and, in the battle of Melitene, the 
Scythian chief turned the flank of the Persians, at- 
tacked their rear -guard, in the presence of Nushir- 
wan himself, and pillaged his camp. The Romans, 
too, on their side, were left masters of the field, and 
their general Justinian, after attacking Dara, was 
permitted to erect his standard on the shores of the 
Caspian. This inland sea was now, for the first 
time, explored by a hostile fleet, and seventy thou- 
sand captives transplanted from the shores of Hyr- 
cania to the Island of Cyprus. 

The reign of Nushirwan's successor, Hormazd, is 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I»I 

chiefly remarkable for the gallant conduct of a rebel 
chief, who bore the time-honored name of Varahran. 
Hormazd had allowed his father's empire to fall into 
decay; all the outlying provinces, Babylon, Susa, 
Caramania, Arabia, India and Scythia, were in revolt ; 
and the Romans, taking advantage of these dissen- 
sions, had made constant inroads into Mesopotamia 
and Assyria. 

But " Persia lost by a king, was saved by a hero." 
Varahran, known before for his valor at the siege 
of Dara, repelled the Tatar host near the Caspian 
gates, but was less successful, when shortly afterwards 
he was attacked by the veteran troops of Rome, un- 
der the command of Romanus, the lieutenant of the 
emperor Mauricius. Having on this occasion re- 
ceived an insulting message from Hormazd, he threw 
off his allegiance, with the ready assent of his troops 
and of the people generally, to whom that ruler had 
made himself hateful. A revolution, however, broke 
out at Ctesiphon, and the son of Hormazd, Khosru 
II. (Parviz), ascended his father's throne (a.d. 591) : 
but in conflict with Varahran, he was hopelessly 
beaten, and condemned to take refuge within the do- 
minions of Mauricius, who readily espoused his cause. 

A powerful army was shortly after (a.d. 591) as- 
sembled on the frontiers of Syria and Armenia, under 
the command of the best general of his time, Narses, 
with orders not to sheath the sword, till Khosru was 
replaced on the throne of his ancestors. "The 
restoration of Khosru was celebrated with feasts and 
executions, and the music of the royal banquet was 



1 82 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

often disturbed by the groans of dying or mutilated 
criminals. ' ' 

During the reign of Mauricius, the Persian ruler 
was not forgetful of the power to whom he owed his 
throne ; the cities of Martyropolis and of Dara were 
restored to the Romans, the banks of the Araxes and 
the shores of the Caspian forming the boundaries of 
their empire. But these advantages were not des- 
tined to remain for many years under the command 
of the feeble Constantinopolitans, the murder of 
Mauricius and of his family by the upstart Phocas 
producing such a revolution as might easily have 
been foreseen. When Khosru heard of this murder 
he instantly declared war (nominally at least) to 
avenge the death of his benefactor, and doubtless, at 
first, owed much of his success to the destruction of 
the unfortunate Narses, who had been seized by 
Phocas, and burnt alive in the market-place of Con- 
stantinople (a.d. 605). Indeed, during the short 
reign of this usurper, the Persians were everywhere 
victorious: "the fortifications of Mardin, Dara, 
Amida, and Edessa," says Gibbon, "were besieged, 
reduced or destroyed by the Persian monarch ; he 
passed the Euphrates, occupied the Syrian cities 
Hierapolis and Berrhsea or Aleppo, and soon em- 
compassed the walls of Antioch, with his irresistible 

arms The first intelligence from the East, 

which Heraclius (the successor of Phocas) received, 
was that of the loss of Antioch : but the ancient 
metropolis, so often overturned by earthquakes, or 
pillaged by an enemy, could supply but a small and 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 83 

languid stream of treasure and blood. The Persians 
were equally successful, and more fortunate in the 
sack of Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia, and, as 
they advanced beyond the ramparts of the frontiers, 
the boundary of ancient war, they found a less obsti- 
nate resistance and a more plentiful harvest ...... 

The-conquest of Jerusalem, which had been medi- 
tated by Nushirwan, was achieved by the zeal of his 

grandson The sepulchre of Christ, and the 

stately churches of Helena and Constantine were 
consumed, or at least damaged by the flames; the 
devout offerings of three hundred years were rifled in 
one sacrilegious day. Egypt itself, the only province 
which had been exempt since the time of Diocletian 
from foreign and domestic war, was again subdued 
by the successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, the key of that 
impervious country, was surprised by the cavalry 

of the Persians and Chosroes entered the 

second city of the empire (Alexandria), which still 
retained a wealthy remnant of industry and com- 
merce In the first campaign, another army 

advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bos- 
phorus ; Chalcedon surrendered after a long siege, 
and a Persian camp was maintained for ten years in 
the presence of Constantinople. The sea coast of 
Pontus, the city of Ancyra, and the Island of Rhodes, 
are enumerated among the latest conquests (a.d. 620) 
of the great king, and if Chosroes had possessed any 
maritime power, his boundless ambition would 
have spread slavery and desolation over the pro- 
vinces of Europe." 



1 84 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

It is impossible not to see, in this long career of 
victory and plunder, that the Persian ruler was really 
consulting his own tastes and that of his people, 
rather than avenging the memory of Mauricius, else, 
on the death of Phocas, he would have made friends 
with Heraclius, who had already sufficiently pun- 
ished those who had been the chief agents in the 
fate of his predecessor. On the contrary, Khosru 
rejected, with disdain, the repeated embassies of 
Heraclius, entreating him to spare the innocent, to 
accept a tribute, and thus to give peace to the world. 
When, on the treachery of the Avars, Heraclius was 
compelled to fly from his capital, the Persian lieute- 
nant of Khosru at Chalcedon, pitying his fate, of- 
fered to send an embassy for aid to his master. " It 
was not an embassy," replied the tyrant of Asia, 
" it was the person of Heraclius bound in chains, 
that he should have brought to the foot of my 
throne. I will never give peace to the emperor of 
Rome, till he has abjured his crucified God, and 
embraced the worship of the Sun." 

But a retribution soon followed, little anticipated 
from the previous character and conduct of the 
Greek emperor. The war that had found Heraclius 
the slave of sloth and pleasure, aroused the spirit 
of a hero. "The Arcadius of the palace arose the 
Caesar of the camp;" and the honor of Rome and 
of Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits 
and trophies of six adventurous campaigns. The 
sun indeed of the Sassanians had now well-nigh set. 
A campaign of great brilliancy restored the pro- 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 185 

vinces of Asia Minor, and the hard-fought battle of 
Issus the losses of many previous years. Pursuing 
his march, Heraclius crossed the heights of Taurus, 
and sweeping the plains of Cappadocia, went into 
winter quarters on the banks of the Halys. The 
following year saw this second Hannibal exploring 
his perilous way through the mountains of Armenia, 
and advancing almost on the footsteps of Antony to 
Ganzaca, the ancient capital of Media Atropatene ; 
the ruin of Urmiah, one of the traditional birth- 
places of Zoroaster, in some degree atoning for the 
spoil of the Holy Sepulchre. Another campaign 
carried the arms of the Romans to the neighborhood 
of Kashan and Ispahan, which had never yet been 
approached by a Western conqueror. 

Alarmed at the successes of Heraclius, Khosru re- 
called his forces from the Nile and the Bosphorus 
and three formidable armies surrounded the camp 
of the emperor. But the danger was met by a gen- 
eral equal to the occasion. "Be not dismayed," 
exclaimed the intrepid Heraclius, " with the aid of 
heaven one Roman may triumph over a horde of 
barbarians. If we devote our lives for the salvation 
of our brethren we shall obtain the crown of martyr- 
dom, and ouk immortal reward will be liberally paid 
by God and posterity. ' ' The victory which ensued 
was the reply to his prayers, and Heraclius returned 
in triumph to Constantinople with the recovery of 
three hundred Roman standards and the deliverance 
of innumerable captives from the prisons of Edessa 
and Alexandria. The reign of Khosru terminated 



1 86 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

after thirty-eight years by his murder : had it been 
six years shorter it would have been one of unbroken 
success. Historians are not agreed as to the per- 
sonal share Khosru had in his earlier and glorious 
wars, and some, like Malcolm, attribute all his gains 
to the ability of his generals. This much, however, 
is certain that the later victories of Heraclius nearly 
annihilated his former power, and practically de- 
stroyed the rule of the Sassanian house. 

But a new era was now about to commence for the 
nations of the East and a revolution to take place, 
which has impressed a lasting character on a large 
section of mankind. Muhammed, who was born 
during the reign of Nushirwan, had been zealously 
preaching his new religion, and a willing army was 
now ready to enforce doctrines so acceptable to most 
of those to whom they were addressed. The re- 
ligion of Muhammed, though containing in it some 
noble and sublime views, directly borrowed from 
the Bible, exhibited from its very origin the cha- 
racter of violence. The goods of this world and 
every earthly enjoyment were the pious prizes of the 
faithful soldier who drew his sword against the 
enemies of Muhammed : moreover, if he fell in this 
glorious career, a paradise was open for his recep- 
tion, with all the pleasures of the senses at his fullest 
and freest disposal. Nor indeed has Muhammedan- 
ism even now lost its aggressive character. Dr. 
Barth relates, how, in the centre of Africa, he found 
a religious war in full force, the object being to compel 
the fetish-worshiping Africans to embrace its tenets, 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 87 

Some years before the war with Heraclius, Khosru 
had received a letter from the " camel-driver of 
Mecca," enjoining him to abjure the faith of his 
ancestors, and to embrace the worship of the " One 
True God," of Whom he, Muhammed, professed 
himself the Apostle. The indignant monarch, tear- 
ing the letter in pieces, cast the fragments into the 
Karasu, by the side of which he was then encamped. 
To this action, Muhammedan writers attribute all 
the subsequent misfortunes of this prince ; nor, 
indeed, has this belief even now faded away. Mal- 
colm, when himself halting at this river, in 1800, 
remarked to a Persian that its banks were very high, 
and its waters, therefore, of comparatively little use 
for the purposes of irrigation. "It once fertilized 
the whole country," replied the zealous Muham- 
medan, "but its channel sank with horror from its 
banks when that madman, Khosru, threw our holy 
prophet's letter into the stream ; which has ever 
since been accursed and useless. ' ' 

The first attacks of the Arabs were repelled ; but 
the Khalif Omar continually supplying fresh rein- 
forcements, the battle of Kadesiah well retrieved 
their former disasters ; and the glory of Persia, as 
an independent country, ceased forever, when the 
famous Darafsh-i-Kawani was captured by the Arabs. 
The sack of Madain (Ctesiphon), and the carnage 
of Nehavend followed, and the empire of the Sas- 
sanidse and with it the religion of Zoroaster, as a 
national faith, fell from the grasp of Yezdigird III., 
the last feeble ruler of this house. Thus ended, in 



1 88 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

a.d. 641, a dynasty who had ruled Persia for 415 
years, and which in the hands of Ardashir I., Shah- 
pur II., Nushirwan and Khosru II., had extended its 
glories from the sands of Libya to the waters of the 
Indus. 

It now only remains for me to notice briefly some 
of the remarkable monuments of Sassanian times 
still remaining in Persia, attesting as these do the 
power of the great monarchs by whom they were 
executed ; and I will take first those of Nakhsh-i- 
Rustam, the place famous, as already noticed, for 
the tomb of Darius. From Sir R. K. Porter we 
learn that there are here three figures ; of whom the 
two leaders are engaged in grasping, with out- 
stretched arms, a wreath or twisted bandeau, from 
which hang a couple of waving ends. " The first 
figure, which holds it in his right hand, stands on 
the right of the sculpture, and appears to be a king. 
He is crowned with a diadem of a bonnet shape, 
round which runs a range of upward fluted orna- 
ments with a balloon-like mass rising from the mid- 
dle of the crown* .... His hair is full, flowing, 
and curled, having nothing of the stiff wig appear- 
ance, so remarkable in the bas-reliefs of the Achse- 
menian. period. The beard of this figure is very 
singularly disposed. On the upper lip, it is formed 

*This head-dress is the same as may be seen on a large number 
of the coins of the Sassanian dynasty ; it is still represented, though 
shorn of its pearls and precious stones, in the high cap worn by the 
Parsees of Bombay. The coins exhibit several different varieties 
of this head-dress. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. l8o 

o 
like moustachios, and grows from the front of the 
ear, down the whole of the jaw, in neat, short curls, 
but on the chin it becomes of great length (which, 
as I have observed before, seems to be the lasting 
attribute of royalty in Persia), and is tied together, 
just at the point of the chin, whence it hangs like a 

large tassel* His tunic has tight long 

sleeves, and is bound by a belt which passes over the 
right hip ; the folds of the tunic at the top of the 
belt are well expressed in the stone. To the other 
side of this girdle it is probable the sword is at- 
tached, the hilt of which he is grasping with his left 
hand. On my arrival afterwards at Shiraz, a Per- 
sian artist showed me a very old drawing of this bas- 
relief, where the present mutilated space was filled 
by the upper part of the figure of a boy, crowned 
with a diadem like the personage on the left, and 
like the figure of the king, clasping the hilt of his 
sword with his left hand." Opposite to the king 
stands a figure whose closely fitting dress suggests a 
feminine form. A third figure with a short bushy 
beard stands behind the king. The composition of 
the piece seems to indicate a royal union, and may 
refer to Varahran V., and his queen, who, besides 
being the partner of his domestic pleasures, was, as 
we may see from the coins of the period, associated 
with him and his son in the empire. 

* Sir R. K. Porter had not, of course, seen the monuments dis- 
covered at Nimriid and elsewhere by Mr. Layard and other exca- 
vators. The treatment of the beard would seem to have arrived 
at its culminating point of care and completeness as early as the 
ninth century B.C. 



I90 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

The next relief, a few paces from the former, re- 
presents a combat between two horsemen, and has 
been designed with much spirit. The chief figure, 
in the act of charging his opponent with a spear, 
exhibits considerable grace and harmony of action. 
He wears a winged helmet and scaly armor, not al- 
together unlike that of the Knights Templars. A 
second and prostrate figure lies under the belly of 
the horse of the principal one. A third relief in a 
more perfect state, consists of four figures, the chief 
one of which can hardly be any one but Shahpur I. 
Before him is another figure, in the usual dress of a 
Roman soldier, with his arms extended as though 
seeking mercy, and his left knee bent. There is no 
reason to doubt that we have here the well-known 
story of the humbling of the Roman emperor Vale- 
rian by Shahpur I., and it is the more interesting as 
the work is clearly that of a Persian artist. It has 
long since been suggested that the third figure to 
whom Shahpur is giving his hand is Cyriades, the 
wretched nobody he is said to have placed on the 
throne.* The scale of this stone picture is colossal, 
the whole of the face of the rock having been exca- 
vated, and a tablet formed thirty-seven feet long, the 
horse alone occupying fourteen. 

On a fourth sculpture is a repetition of the com- 
bat between Varahran V. , (Gaur) and a figure whom 

* This portion of the story is represented elsewhere with slight 
differences. At Darabjerd, Shahpur is placing his left hand on the 
head of Cyriades (Flandin, PI. 31-33) ; at Shahpur a single figure 
kneels before the conqueror's horse. (Flandin, PI. 48.) 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I9I 

Sir R. Porter calls a Tatar prince. Though muti- 
lated, it is in some respects better preserved than the 
former, and has some interest from the fact that over 
the whole of one of the figures are indications of a 
once perfect coat of small plate mail, the special 
dress, according to Heliodorus, of the cataphracti 
or heavy cavalry. The long pike, as noticed by the 
same writer, resembling those on the Achaemenian 
sculptures at Persepolis. 

The fifth sculpture has peculiar excellence ; and 
represents two men on horseback meeting, the one 
bestowing, the other receiving, the circlet or badge 
of sovereignty.* On the breast of the horses, just 
above their shoulders, are inscriptions in Greek and 
Pehlevi. The length of the excavation is twenty- 
one feet ; and the monument is in white marble, its 
surface being polished and still well preserved. The 
general sense of the inscriptions confirms the attri- 
bution of one of the figures to Ardashir and of the 
other to Ormazd or (as De Sacy calls him) Jupiter. 

The next sculptures to be noticed are those of 
Nakhsh-i-Regib, a portion of the Persepolitan range. 

* Mr. Edward Thomas, F. R. S., who has studied the details of 
these monuments with great care (Asiat. Journal, 1868), thinks this 
subject is the bestowal by Ormazd of the imperial cydaris on Ar- 
dashir Babek&n for his victory over the last Arsakes, whose pros- 
trate form is identified by the snake-crested Median helmet he 
wears, and his view is confirmed by the attached inscriptions. 
(Ker Porter, i. PI. 23. Flandin.iv. pi. 182.) There is another 
sculpture at Nakhsh-i-Rustam, of the time of Narses, perhaps 
representing a similar investiture. This inscription is given, but 
incorrectly, by Morier, PI. xxix. 1812. See however Flandin, PI. 
45, relief B, and Sculpt. PI. 52, relief B. 



192 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Here a large natural recess is visible, enclosing sculp- 
tures evidently representing historical events. The 
one to the right is the same in subject, but smaller 
in dimensions, than that at Nakhsh-i-Rustam, and 
exhibits two horsemen holding between them the 
royal circlet ;* its style, however, suggests a later 
age and less skilful workmen. It has moreover been 
greatly mutilated, probably as Chardin asserts, by 
the minister of the son of Shah Abbas, the marks 
of savage violence being but too visible. The next 
slab occupies the centre of the recess, and repeats 
the same subject, only that, on this occasion,, the 
actors are on foot. This sculpture is unquestionably 
coeval with those at Nakhsh-i-Rustam. The third 
relief is the largest, and probably the most important. 
The leading personage on horseback, behind whom 
are nine followers, is evidently the king, and the 
whole most likely represents one of the many royal 
progresses. The king wears a dress of silk, or of 
some fine texture, falling over him lightly, f The 
attendants wear Margian helmets of steel, an ex- 
cellent specimen of which, procured by Mr. Layard, 
and studded with golden nails, may be seen in the 
British Museum. On the inscription, Shahpur is 
called " King of kings, king of Iran and Aniran." 

* This sculpture seems to have been first noticed by Sir W. 
Ouseley, but not to have been recognized by either Morier or Ker 
Porter. It may, however, be seen in Flandin, PI. 192, relief B. 

f The same dress, chain armor over silk, may be seen on many 
Buddhistic figures, frequently brought to light by General Cun- 
ningham, and perhaps, too, on some of the Indo Scythic coins. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I93 

Descending into the plain, Sir R. K. Porter found 
on the edge of the mountain a range of sculptures, 
belonging to the same period, but evidently never 
completed, as they are only blocked out. The most 
finished of them consists of two figures, one that of 
a woman, in light and delicate drapery, stretching 
out her right hand towards her companion, who 
wears the royal dress, common on the Sassanian re- 
liefs. The remainder of the range comprises two 
more sculptures, both containing the effigies of the 
king, with the globular crown, a profusion of curls, 
a collar and ear-rings. Sir R. K. Porter notices also 
some sculptural remains of the same period at Rhey 
(Rhages), representing a horseman at full charge. 
In this case, though the rock has been smoothed 
away for a space of about sixteen by twelve feet, the 
sculpture has remained unfinished. 

The ruins of Shahpur, about fifteen miles north 
of Kazerun, are among the most celebrated works 
of Sassanian times, and yet, though but a few miles 
out of the road, they have been passed by every 
traveler from Tavernier and Thevenot down to Scott 
Waring : it was not, indeed, till Mr. Morier visited 
them in the year 1809, that anything was really 
known about them. Mr. Morier considers that the 
ruins of Shahpur have extended over a circumference 
of about six miles, enclosing a tract of plain and a 
hill, on which the ancient citadel forms a conspicuous 
object. Mr. Morier describes the position as one 
of singular grandeur and beauty, and adds: "The 
first object which attracted our attention, was a mu- 

N 



194 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

tilated sculpture of two colossal figures on horse- 
back, carved on the upper superficies of the rock. 
The figure to the right was the most injured, the 
only part, indeed, that we could ascertain with pre- 
cision, was one of the front, and two of the hinder 
feet of a horse, standing over the statue of a man, 
who was extended at his full length, his face turning 
outwardly, and reposed on his right hand, and his 
attire bearing marks of a Roman costume. A figure 
in the same dress * was placed in an attitude of sup- 
plication at the horse's knees, and a head in alto- 
relievo, just appeared behind the hinder feet 

The next piece of sculpture (which, like the former, 
is carved upon the mountain of the citadel) is per- 
fect in all its parts. It consists of three grand com- 
partments ; the central and most interesting repre- 
senting a figure on horseback, whose dress announces 

a royal personage A quiver hangs by his 

side ; in his right hand he holds the hand of a figure 
behind him, which stands so as to cover the whole 
hind-quarter of his horse, and is dressed in a Roman 
tunic and helmet. A figure, habited also in the 
Roman costume, is on its knees before the head of 
the horse, with its hands extended, and a face be- 

* This is clearly another representation of the story of Valerian 
and Shahpur : the figure kneeling may be Cyriades awaiting inves- 
titure ; a subject more than once repeated with varying details. On 
another, but somewhat similar sculpture, the Roman emperor is 
not so readily recognized, and it is probable that this one refers to 
some other victory of the Persian monarch. It may be added that 
there is no trace in any of these reliefs, of any barbarous treatment 
of the emperor on the part of his captop. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I95 

traying entreaty. Under the feet of the horse is 
another figure extended, in the same attire and cha- 
racter as that of the other two Roman figures ; to 
the right of the tablet stands a figure (behind that in 
a suppliant attitude) with his hands also extended, 
but dressed in a different manner, and, as far as we 
could judge, with features more Egyptian than Euro- 
pean In another 

compartment are rows of people, apparently in the 
attitude of supplication, and in a third, rows of horse- 
men. The whole of this interesting monument is 
sculptured on a very hard rock, and still exhibits a 
fine polish. On the opposite side of the river is a 
long tablet containing a multitude of figures, the 
chief of whom is seated alone in a small compart- 
ment, with the sword between his legs, on the pom- 
mel of which he rests his hands." From the number 
and variety of the figures represented to the right 
and the left (in one compartment a man is approach- 
ing carrying two heads), Mr. Morier, probably with 
justice, supposes the whole scene represents the king 
in his hall of audience, surrounded by his people, 
and perhaps by the representatives of the nations 
tributary to him. Further on Mr. Morier met with 
another sculpture, which he thus describes : "In the 
first row, at the top on the right, are a number of 
slight figures with their arms folded; the second is 
filled with a crowd, some of whom carry baskets ; 
the third is equally covered ; and in the right corner 
is a man conducting a lion by a chain. In the fourth, 
and just opposite the king, is a very remarkable 



I96 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

group, whose loose and folded dresses denote In- 
dians. One leads a horse, whose furniture I have 
drawn with some care, and behind the horse is an 
elephant. Under this and close to the ground are 
men in Roman costume ; among them is a chariot, 
to which two horses are harnessed." On recrossing 
the river Mr. Morier discovered some splendidly 
built masonry, each stone four feet long, twenty- 
seven inches thick, and cut to the finest angles, the 
front, in fact, of a square building, the area of which 
is fifty-five feet. At the top there had been sphinxes 
couchant. Beyond this again were the remains of a 
small theatre. 

It is natural that the chief subject of the sculptures 
at Shahpur should be the overthrow of the emperor 
Valerian, as the city was in the heart of the ancient 
province of Persis. Indeed the province, of which 
it was a leading town, was their native seat, and con- 
tained their tombs, palaces, and treasures ; moreover, 
when their empire was overthrown, it was still as a 
rule administered by its native princes. Here it is 
probable that the fire-worship was never wholly 
suppressed ; indeed, so late as the tenth century, 
after 300 years of Muhammedanism, Ibn Haukal ex- 
pressly observes that "no district or town of Fars 
was without a fire-temple." Shahpur itself, like 
many other places in the East, suffered less from the 
first violence of the Arabian invasion than from the 
wars of the subsequent native dynasties : it gradually 
decayed, as have nearly all the sites of early Persian 
greatness. As late, however, as the sixteenth cen- 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 1 97 

tury, the name of Shahpur occurs in. a table of lati- 
tudes and longitudes attached to the Ain-i Akbari ; 
its position is marked on a map of Cluverius in 1672 ; 
and D'Anville, on the authority of the Oriental 
writers, has so called a district of Persia. 

Having now described the principal monuments 
of the south of Persia, we must, in conclusion, take 
a brief review of some in the northern part of the 
country, which are not less worthy of attentive no- 
tice and study; and we will take first those of 
Takht-i-Bostan, the throne of the gardens, a portion 
of the great rocky mass of Behistan. The rock itself 
is craggy, barren, and terrific ; its towering heights 
frown darkly over the blooming.vale of Kirmanshah, 
but, at the base of the mountain, bursts forth a stream 
of peculiar clearness, which the natives have named 
Shirin, in remembrance of the celebrated loves of 
Khosrii and the beautiful damsel of that name. 

The monuments consist of two lofty and deep 
arches, excavated with great labor and skill on the 
face of the mountain ; within which are several bas- 
reliefs, executed with remarkable spirit and excel- 
lence; while a little beyond, where the mountain 
recedes, a flight of several hundred steps is cut on 
the edge of the nearly precipitous cliffs, forming an 
intricate and dangerous ascent towards its summit, 
and finishing abruptly with an extensive ledge or 
platform. 

On the edge of the river, Sir R. K. Porter noticed 
the remains of a statue of colossal size, now much 
mutilated, which he thinks must have fallen from 



I98 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

the heights above; as on the ledge above is a row 
of sculptured feet broken off at the ankles. The 
largest arch measures in width twenty-four feet, and 
in depth twenty-one ; and the face of the rock has 
been smoothed for a great distance above the sweep 
of the arch, and on each side. On the surface to 
the right and to the left are two upright entabla- 
tures, containing exquisitely carved ornamentation, 
adorned with foliage in a classical style. Above the 
keystone is a crescent, and at the end of each curve 
are gigantic female figures, resembling the usual type 
of Victory on Roman coins ; the artists who carved 
them having been probably Greeks of Constantino- 
ple. The inner face of the excavation is divided 
into two compartments, the upper one of which 
contains three figures, viz., a female in the royal 
dress and wearing the Sassanian diadem ; a central 
figure, doubtless the monarch himself; and a third 
one wearing a diadem like that on the female head, 
and engaged in presenting a diadem to the king. 
The lower space is almost wholly occupied by a 
colossal equestrian figure of Khosru II., both horse 
and rider being covered with a coat of mail.* The 
whole character of the man and horse resembles very 
much the huge metal-covered knights to be seen in 
illuminated copies of Froissart's Chronicles. This 
sculpture has been much damaged by the Arabs, and 
there are no intelligible remains of the inscriptions 
once engraven on it. The details have, however, 

*See Numismatic Chronicle, vol. XIII., coin No. 80. 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. I99 

been worked out with great care, and, with the 
groups above, afford accurate and valuable specimens 
of the royal and military costumes of the period. 

The sides of the arch are covered with representa- 
tions of the sports of the field, wild boar and stag 
hunts. Many of the persons are mounted, while 
boats also appear, probably to indicate a marshy 
country intersected by small lakes; from these, 
sportsmen are discharging their arrows ; while pon- 
derous elephants, with their riders, plunge through 
the bushes in every direction. Two of the boats are 
filled with harpers, perhaps women ; in a third are 
men with pipes. In the centre of the scene is a 
boat, in which stands a personage in stature gigantic- 
ally taller than any of the other figures, and a little 
lower in the line of the hunt is a second figure 
slightly smaller than the first, with a halo or saintly 
glory round his head. This figure is receiving an 
arrow from one of his attendants, and a woman sits 
near him in the same boat, playing on the harp. 
The bas-relief of the figure under the arch, as well 
as the similar figures on the coins, represent the 
women as unveiled, thus showing that they were not 
at that time as rigidly secluded as they have been 
since the enforcement of the Muhammedan religion. 

On the opposite side of the arch is another relief, 
representing the chase of the deer. On this the 
chief personage appears nearly at the top of the 
sculpture, entering the field in state, under the shade 
of an umbrella, and mounted on a richly capari- 
soned horse. Below is a similar figure, but this time 



200 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

moving at full speed. Towards the top of the re- 
lief is raised a scaffold, on which rows of musicians 
are seated, playing on various instruments, all curious 
specimens of the art of the period. In another 
compartment we see the carrying off of the spoil, 
and elephants in pursuit of the deer. This bas- 
relief is finished in only a few places ; parts are 
merely begun, but what has been completed, both in 
this, and on the opposite side, is executed in a 
masterly style. It has been supposed that the group 
of the three figures above the equestrian warrior, 
commemorates the double gift by the emperor Mau- 
ricius to the Persian king of his bride and his crown. 
On this supposition, Khosru is standing in his robes 
of inauguration between the imperial pair, the 
princess on the one side holding a diadem, and the 
emperor on the other presenting the new king with 
the crown, to which the arms of the Romans had 
restored him. At the same time it must be remem- 
bered that it is purely an Oriental tradition which 
gives Khosru a Greek wife, the daughter of his bene- 
factor, Mauricius, and that the story is scarcely pro- 
bable. 

The second arch is smaller in its dimensions than 
the former, being only nine feet wide by twelve in 
depth. The figures on each side were originally 
rudely and carelessly sculptured, and are now still 
less visible owing to the wilful mutilation they have 
sustained. The monument, however, is of value 
from the inscriptions still remaining on it, which 
prove that one of the figures is meant for Shahpur 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 



II. , (Zu'laktaf), another for his son Shahpur III., 
and the third for Varahran IV., (Kirmanshah), his 
brother. 

I have already noticed that many of the Sassanian 
monuments bear inscriptions in Pehlevi, giving the 
names and titles of the personages represented. But 
there are two remarkable groups of inscriptions re- 
cently made known by the labors of Mr. Edward 
Thomas, the second of which, if correctly inter- 
preted, reads like a new chapter in the history of the 
East. The first group is known by the name of the 
"Pai Kuli " inscriptions, and was copied by Sir H. 
C. Rawlinson and Mr. Alex. Hector, in 1844, from 
a large number of blocks of stone which had fallen 
down from a building originally placed on a rocky 
crag at no great distance from Suleimanieh. Only 
detached portions of one or more long inscriptions 
were recoverable, but Sir Henry Rawlinson thinks 
there is as much more left behind to reward any 
future traveler who may have the means of raising 
the fallen blocks. On these are found the names 
of Ardashir Babekan, Tiridates, of Jews, and, 
perhaps, of Surena, together with those of Persia, 
Assyria, and Armenia. The writing is in all cases 
both in Chaldseo-Pehlevi and Persian-Pehlevi, of the 
former of which Sir H. C. Rawlinson copied ten, 
and of the latter twenty-two portions. In his 
opinion, the original structure was a fire-temple, on 
the line of the well-known road from Ctesiphon to 
the Ecbatana of Atropatene. 

The second is the famous bilingual inscription of 



202 HISTORY OF PERSIA. 

Shahpur at Hajiabad, first noticed and partially 
copied by Sir Robert K. Porter (vol. i. p. 512). 
Of this accurate plaister casts were procured nearly 
forty years ago, by Sir Ephraim Stannus, but till Mr. 
Thomas took the matter up in 1868, the inscriptions 
on them had never been sufficiently studied, though 
printed in more than one work. 

If Mr. Thomas be right in the reading he has pro- 
posed (and the evidence he has brought forward is 
to me at least conclusive on this subject), there can 
be no doubt that in this inscription may be re- 
cognized not only the names of our Saviour and of 
the Jews, but as he justly says " an Eastern para- 
phrase of portions of our Authorized Version. ' ' That 
the reader may see the translation he has suggested 
for some portion of this remarkable inscription, I 
transcribe four lines here, the upper one being that 
of the Chaldaeo-Pehlevi original, the lower that of 
the Sassanian or Persian. It will be at once seen 
that they represent the same sense, indeed contain 
to a great extent the same words: — ■ 

Chald. Pehl. " The powerful ... of the chosen Jews ye (are)." 
Sassan. " The supreme Lord of the Jews outside the (ancient) 
rites he (is)." 

Chald. Pehl. " Of a certainty, the Master, the divine Lord," &c. 
Sassan. " And, of a certainty, the Master, the divine Lord," 
&c. 

f Chald. Pehl. " Created Jews of divine aid, the Lord, thou." 
\ Sassan. " Lord (Jesus) of divine aid, (the) Lord, he." 

Chald. Pehl. " And THE God he (is) great in goodness." 
Sassan. " And THE God that (is) God-like, abounding in good- 
ness." 

Now we may be quite sure that no one would have 



HISTORY OF PERSIA. 203 

dared to engrave such an inscription on the rock, 
except by the direct order of Shahpur himself, and 
therefore, whether Mr. Thomas' interpretation of it 
be accepted or not, that it is a promulgation of the 
religious views of that great monarch. It is quite 
likely, as suggested by Mr. Thomas, that Shahpur 
was much under Western influence after his capture 
of Valerian, in a.d. 261, at the time, too,- when the 
teaching of Mani, himself a Persian by birth, and 
originally a Christian presbyter, was making itself 
felt. We know that Mani after a time had to fly 
from Persia, and this may not impossibly have been 
due to the influence he had acquired over the king, 
which would naturally have aroused the hatred of 
the fanatical Zoroastrians : moreover, it is certain, 
that after the decease of Shahpur, he returned to the 
Court of his son, Hormazd I., where he was well 
received and remained for some years. 

I here draw to a conclusion such a notice of An- 
cient Persia as the limit of one small volume has 
enabled me to bring together ; not without the hope, 
that, though necessarily so brief, the connected story 
of the three governments who, in succession, ruled 
over it, may be found interesting and useful. 



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EDINBURGH REVIEW " The BEST History of the Roman Republic ■' 

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THE 

Utotwq of Mmnt, 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PERIOD OF ITS DECLINE 
By Dr. THEODOR MOMMSEN. 

Translated, with the author's sanction and additions, by the Rev. W. P. Dickson, Regius 
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Dr. Mommsen has long been known and appreciated through his researches 
into the languages, laws, and institutions of Ancient Rome and Italy, as 
the most thoroughly versed scholar now living in these departments of his- 
torical investigation. To a wonderfully exa<5t and exhaustive knowledge of 
these subjects, he unites great powers of generalization, a vigorous, spirited, 
and exceedingly graphic style and keen analytical powers, which give this 
history a degree of interest and a permanent value possessed by no othei 
record of the decline and fall of the Roman Commonwealth. " Dr. 
Mommsen's work," as Dr. Schmitz remarks in the introduction, " though 
the production of a man of most profound and extensive learning and 
knowledge of the world, is not as much designed for the professional 
scholar as for intelligent readers of all classes who take an interest in the his- 
tory of by-gone ages, and are inclined there to seek information that may 
guide them safely through the perplexing mazes of modern history. " 

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" A work of the very highest merit : its learning is exact and profound : its narrative full 
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record our opinion that Dr. Mommsen's is by far the best history of the Decline and Fall 
of the Roman Commonwealth." — London Times. 

" Since the days of Niebuhr, no work on Roman History has appeared that combines so 
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